On 25 June 2018, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) held its summer Ministerial meeting in Sauðárkrókur, Iceland, during which the Ministers of the four EFTA States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Ecuador, represented by H.E. Pablo Campana Sáenz, Minister of Foreign Trade of Ecuador. The signing, only two years after the launch of negotiations at the EFTA Ministerial Meeting in Bern in 2016, will strengthen economic relations between the EFTA States and Ecuador and give economic actors on both sides increased trade and investment opportunities.
Concurrently, the EFTA Ministers signed an enhanced and updated FTA with Turkey, represented by H.E. Nihat Zeybekci, Minister of Economy of Turkey. The current EFTA-Turkey Agreement, signed in 1991, is EFTA’s oldest existing FTA. After four years of negotiations, the modernised and enhanced Agreement will include updated provisions in areas such as intellectual property rights and extend to new topics such as trade in services, trade facilitation and trade and sustainable development.