President Luis Lacalle Pou will receive this Tuesday the Ecuadorian president, Guillermo Lasso, in the Executive Tower at 5:00 p.m.. Lasso, he will arrive with a delegation of three ministers, including the foreign minister, Juan Carlos Holguín.
Lasso, from the liberal and conservative party Creating Opportunities (also known as CREO), is president of Ecuador from May 2021after succeeding Lenin Moreno. Lacalle Pou was going to attend his inauguration, but he stayed in Uruguay for the death of Jorge Larrañagaon May 22.
On April 12, the day after Lasso’s electoral victory in the elections, the Uruguayan president called the new Ecuadorian president to congratulate him on his victory, and showed him his desire to “work together” on matters of common interestreported on Twitter.
I just talked with @LassoGuillermo to congratulate him on his victory and to start working together on issues that our countries have in common .
– Luis Lacalle Pou (@LuisLacallePou) April 12, 2021
Lacalle Pou and Lasso have a close personal bondgovernment sources told The Observer. The two leaders they had a bilateral meeting in September 2021within the framework of VI Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
Lasso has been visiting Argentina since Sunday, April 17with the objective of “strengthen relationships” with the neighboring country, as published by the president on Twitter, in a publication in which he is seen together with the Argentine Foreign Minister, Santiago Cafiero.
We arrived in Argentina, where I have an extensive work agenda to strengthen relations with this wonderful country. I will tell you in the coming days the results of the visit and the good news for Ecuador! ???? pic.twitter.com/kvOnPFYfC5
— Guillermo Lasso (@LassoGuillermo) April 18, 2022
Schedule
On Tuesday, April 19, the Ecuadorian president will begin his agenda in Uruguay with a meeting with Sergio Abreu, general secretary of the Latin American Integration Association (Aladi), at 10:30 am. In the association he will also meet with permanent representatives and academics, and will plant a Guayacán tree, traditional from Ecuador.
At 3:00 p.m., Lasso will meet with the founding businessman of Mercado Libre, Marcos Galperín. A few minutes before meeting with Lacalle Pou, at 4:45 p.m., will place a floral offering to the monument of José Gervasio Artigas in Plaza Independencia.
political profile
Guillermo Lasso, 66, he was president of Banco de Guayaquil between 1994 and 2012, the year in which he founded CREO and decided to enter politics. However, he already had a background in this area: from 1998 to 1999 he was governor of Guayas, a position he left to assume as Super Minister of Economy in August 1999to then leave a month later. In 2003 he was traveling ambassadorbut the charge was dropped.
In his inaugural speech as president he announced the opening of Ecuador “to world trade” and targeted join the Pacific Alliance formed by Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
“I have not come to satisfy the hatred of a few, I have come to satisfy the hunger of many”, the president pointed out in that speech, and maintained that he would prioritize the eradication of child malnutrition, work for gender equality and the fight against unemploymentwhich rose to 5.5% in a country with poverty above 30% product of the coronavirus pandemic.
trade exchange
Uruguay maintains a low level of trade with Ecuador, below US$ 50 million dollars per year in exports and below US$ 15 million in imports from 2014 to 2019, according to a report by Uruguay XXI with data up to October 2019.
Between 2005 and 2010 better figures were reported, with Uruguayan exports of more than US$80 million in 2007, according to a report from the Guayaquil Chamber of Commerce. However, after the 2008 crisis, trade between the two countries leveled off to current standards. In 2012, Ecuador was ranked 60th among export destinations in Uruguay.
In 2018, the product most exported by Uruguay to the country in northern South America they were pharmacists (58% of the exports of that period). Behind were the wool and fabrics (12%) and the cleaning products (8%).
The largest imports were fruits and edible fruits (44%). In second place were the meat and fish preparations (33%) and third parties floriculture products (6%).
The country is far from Ecuador’s main trading partners, whose main exporter is the United States, with a trade volume of US$ 3,125 million. from January to October 2021, according to the December 2021 foreign trade report of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries.
In the other side, China is the main importer in Ecuador, with a volume of US$ 4,166 million from January to October 2021ahead of the United States and Colombia.
