FTA with Ecuador
The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy announced on March 13 that the second round of negotiations for the South Korea-Ecuador Strategic Economic Cooperation Agreement (SECA) takes place in Seoul from March 14 to 18.
The two countries declared the initiation of the negotiations for the South Korea-Ecuador SECA on August 25 last year at a trade ministers’ meeting held in Seoul. Between January 26 and 28 this year, the first round of negotiations took place in Quito, Ecuador, in which discussions started with regard to the 14 fields including trade remedies, service, investment and technical barriers to trade (TBT).
During the second round, more in-depth discussions will follow regarding the same topics along with talks concerning the seven fields including government procurement, intellectual property rights, environmental issues and dispute settlement.
The volume of bilateral trade between South Korea and Ecuador has been on the increase since 2009 and hit a new high of US$1.154 billion in 2014. Last year, South Korea recorded a trade surplus of US$380 million with respect to Ecuador. The term of SECA was requested by Ecuador in view of the political sensitivity of the term of FTA. Both have the same content and effect though.