Ecuador and China will set up a working table to start the formal conversation on the Andean country’s proposal regarding the debt, reported this Saturday, February 5, 2022, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, Juan Carlos Holguín.
In a virtual press conference in Quito, the foreign minister said that one of the main objectives of the head of state’s trip, William Lassoto China was to talk in a “transparent and direct” way with his counterpart Xi Jinping on Ecuador’s debt and “the possible decoupling of oil from all existing financial instruments.”
“We have had an immediate acceptance to set up a work table between the two finance ministers to be able to address the objectives of both oxygenation in the quotas that the Chinese debt has for Ecuadorand on the other hand, these collaterals, these guarantees that oil has within those financial instruments,” he said.
On his side, Lasso pointed out: “It was really an extraordinary meeting with the president Xi Jinping, we have talked about how to deepen relationships between Ecuador and the China. I am very optimistic about what we can achieve in terms of debt renegotiation.”
Before the meeting of the leaders, there was a meeting with the Chinese Prime Minister, Li Keqiang, with whom the ministers of the delegation also spoke about issues related to the debt.
“We had a very important opening in the work team as a result of the conversations that had been under way for a few weeks between the technicians of the teams of the Ministries of Finance of China and Ecuador,” Holguín said.
The foreign minister declared himself “very optimistic” about what can be achieved in terms of debt renegotiation and stressed that Ecuador today delivered the Ecuadorian proposal formally in Beijing.
“It is requested that, as of Monday, February 7, we return to having the technical meetings” linked to the aforementioned proposal, he said.
Holguin He recalled that the total debt of his country with Chinese institutions amounts to about 5,000 million dollars, of which 2,077 million are instruments that are backed by the Petroleum.
And the proposal delivered today consists of “decoupling the oil intermediation that exists from third parties in debt instruments,” he stressed.
FTA
Julius Joseph PradoMinister of Production of Ecuador, who accompanies Lasso on the trip, confirmed at the press conference that China and Ecuador They officially started the negotiation of a free trade agreement.
He noted that they tentatively intend to make the last rwave of negotiations next November at the China-LAC event -the most important in Latin America together with Chinese companies-, which will take place in guayaquil, located in southwestern Ecuador.
Next week, the teams from the Vice Ministries of Foreign Trade of both countries will contact each other to discuss the terms of reference of the agreement and will activate the “private deputy room” for the negotiations.
Then virtual negotiation rounds will be held and, later, delegations from both nations will participate in face-to-face meetings, he said. Meadow noting that with the agreement, Ecuador aspires to expand the market by nearly 1,000 million dollars more of export opportunities.
“This will mean that we could almost be doubling exports to China in various products,” he added before assuring that, on the other hand, in terms of investments, they held meetings with the “largest companies in China«.
Among them he mentioned Sinovac, with which they are seeking an agreement for an investment in a manufacturing plant for vaccines of all kinds in Ecuador. EFE
