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Ecuador

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On 30 October 2020, the Swiss Federal Council announced that the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) concluded between the states of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and Ecuador enters into force on 1 November. To that end, on 18 September, the Federal Council adopted the necessary amendments to the ordinances implementing the customs duty concessions set out in the agreement. This modern agreement will help to boost trade relations between the EFTA states and…

On 21 September 2020, the Federal Customs Administration announced that the EFTA-Ecuador Free Trade Agreement will enter into force on 1 November 2020. Some points: The EFTA-Ecuador Agreement provides for the cumulation of originating products between EFTA countries and Ecuador. Cumulation with input materials from Colombia and Peru is also permitted. These input materials must be originating products under the relevant agreement which are processed or incorporated into a product in EFTA countries or Ecuador;…

On February 14, 2020, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published in the Federal Register a final rule [CBP Dec. 20-03] that amends the CBP regulations to reflect the imposition of import restrictions on certain archaeological and ethnological material from Ecuador. These restrictions are being imposed pursuant to an agreement between the United States and Ecuador that has been entered into under the authority of the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act. The final rule…

On February 7, 2020, the US Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a document announcing the country-by-country reallocations of 78,071 MTRV of the fiscal year (FY) 2020 in-quota quantity of the World Trade Organization (WTO) tariff-rate quota (TRQ) for imported raw cane sugar from those countries that stated they do not plan to fill their FY 2020 allocated raw cane sugar quantities. See the notice for country-by-country reallocations.

On November 19, 2019, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice announcing a hearing for the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) country practice reviews of Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Georgia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Thailand, South Africa, and Uzbekistan, and the country designation review of Laos. These reviews will focus on whether: (1) Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan are meeting the GSP eligibility criterion requiring that a GSP beneficiary country afford…

On October 25, 2019, USTR announced that President Trump is suspending $1.3 billion in trade preferences for Thailand under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) based on its failure to adequately provide internationally-recognized worker rights. In addition, the President is restoring some GSP benefits for Ukraine following its passage of legislation aimed at addressing shortcomings in its intellectual property (IP) regime. USTR also announced it is opening new GSP eligibility reviews for two countries:  South…

On 21 February, 2019, the Department for International Trade (DIT) issued guidance entitled, Existing trade agreements if the UK leaves the EU without a deal, which sets out the status of those agreements (free trade agreements, economic partnership agreements, association agreements and customs union) that may not be in place by exit day. It also links to trade agreements that have been signed and mutual recognition agreements that have been signed.

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.

On May 18, 2018, the Department of State and the US Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice of termination [Public Notice 10418] of the “Treaty between the United States of America and the Republic of Ecuador Concerning the Encouragement and Reciprocal Protection of Investment” (“the Treaty”). Ecuador delivered a notice dated May 18, 2017, that it was terminating the Treaty.