Honduras and Ecuador held a second round of negotiations towards a free trade agreement (FTA) between February 2 and 4, 2016, according to Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Trade.
Through the agreement, Ecuador is seeking to gain preferential tariff treatment for its exports to Honduras, especially for its non-traditional exports to that country, including metals, appliances, construction materials, wood, plastics, and agribusiness supplies.
The negotiations were launched in November 2015, and they are expected to be concluded in the first half of this year.
Ecuador’s exports to Honduras were worth USD9.64m and its imports from Honduras were valued at USD2.23m between January and November 2015. Ecuador’s Minister of Trade, Alejandro Dávalos, said that value-added products make up 60 percent of Ecuador’s exports to the Central American region.
Aside from Honduras, Ecuador is currently pursuing trade agreements with Nicaragua, El Salvador, Cuba, Turkey, and South Korea. It also plans to launch trade negotiations with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) member states, the European Union, Iran, the Dominican Republic, and Costa Rica.
IMC Group