(4 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Quito, Ecuador – 4 April 2025
1. Various of ministers and officials arriving at briefing and taking seats
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Gabriela Sommerfeld, Ecuador’s Foreign Minister:
"President (Donald) Trump, President of the United States, announced through an official document the imposition of new tariffs to foreign trade. This is basically divided into two tariffs, one which is a global base tariff of 10% for more than 180 countries in the world, and another which is a reciprocity tariff, reciprocity based on the reality of foreign trade that is held with each country. Within this scenario, Ecuador obtained the lowest tariff that was announced in this document, that is, 10%."
3. Carlos Zaldumbide, Ecuador’s Foreign Trade Minister, speaking
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Carlos Zaldumbide, Ecuador’s Foreign Trade Minister:
"This does not specifically mean that we are going to have a competitive advantage. There are many variables that have to be analyzed at a global level and this is why we have been working together with the productive sector, with each of the sectors, so to analyze what the defects of each of these sectors may be as the information progresses."
5. Mid of briefing
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Felipe Ribadeneira, President of the Ecuadorian Federation of Exporters:
"At this moment, our tariff rate to enter the United States would simply be 10% on all products, and this is not the case. This is to say, those products that had zero, which are effectively a large percentage of our exports to the United States, such as shrimp, cocoa and bananas, will get a 10%, but those products that already had a tariff are going to be increased and that does cause concern."
7. Mid of briefing
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Maria Paz Jervis, President of the Ecuadorian Business Committee:
"That in a changing trade scenario, where it is surely the beginning of a new trade and economic order at the global level, the only thing that the productive sector can do is what we know how to do, and that is to continue working and looking for opportunities that guarantee progress and jobs."
9. Various of officials and ministers at briefing
10. Officials and ministers leaving briefing
STORYLINE:
Ecuador’s presidential cabinet held a meeting with business officials on Friday, where they discussed the recent tariffs imposed on the country by U.S President Donald Trump.
The U.S., Ecuador’s main trade partner, imposed a tariff of 10% on all of its exports, one of the lowest rates announced by Trump on Wednesday.
Felipe Ribadeneira, President of the Ecuadorian Federation of Exporters, expressed concern over the tariff announcement.
"At this moment, our tariff rate to enter the United States would simply be 10% on all products, and this is not the case," he said.
"This is to say, those products that had zero, which are effectively a large percentage of our exports to the United States, such as shrimp, cocoa and bananas, will get a 10%, but those products that already had a tariff are going to be increased and that does cause concern."
Ecuador’s Foreign Trade minister, Carlos Zaldumbide, said the government would be working with each sector to address the tariffs as more information becomes available.
In 2024, Ecuador’s trade balance with the United States had a deficit of 644.5 million dollars, according to statistics from the Central Bank of Ecuador.
Ecuador mainly exports crude oil, shrimp, bananas, and cocoa to the U.S.
Until now, bananas, shrimp, and cocoa from Ecuador have entered the United States free of tariffs.
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