SANTIAGO – Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera and and his Ecuadorian counterpart Lenin Moreno have signed a new Free Trade Agreement, which provides significant benefits for exporters and small and medium-sized companies.
Piñera, who was accompanied by the chancellor, Andrés Allamand, appreciated the agreement that will address trade in services, electronic commerce, telecommunications, labor issues, environment, gender and SMEs.
“It will allow us, without a doubt, to better face the many challenges that we will have to take on on the road to a better future for both countries,” said the Chilean head of state.
Hoy firmamos Acuerdo de Integración Comercial Chile-Ecuador q incorpora economía digital y Pymes y apoyará recuperación económica de nuestros países.
Este gran paso con Pdte @Lenin traerá beneficios y oportunidades a exportadores, pymes, emprendedores y a todos los chilenos. pic.twitter.com/TVtSmOC3ZA
— Sebastian Piñera (@sebastianpinera) August 13, 2020
Regarding electronic commerce, it is projected that the agreement will have a greater impact on micro, small and medium-sized companies by facilitating electronic transactions and improving the conditions under which Chilean digital products and services providers operate in the Ecuadorian market, the Chile’s fifth largest trading partner.
Piñera assured that the agreement will allow both countries to have more opportunities, and for their “economies to develop more strongly”, creating more and better jobs, as well as “greater possibilities of accessing technologies and the world to come.”
The agreement also encourages the participation of Chilean suppliers of goods and services in public tenders under conditions of equality with respect to Ecuadorian companies.
In terms of regional development, both were founding countries of the Forum for the Progress of South America (Prosur), while Ecuador participates as an observer state of the Pacific Alliance, made up of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, a bloc that makes up the eighth economic and exporting power in the world.
