ECUADOR LOOKING TO CONCLUDE FTA

UNCLAS QUITO 000403 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/AND STATE PASS USTR FOR BHARMAN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETRD ECON PREL EC SUBJECT: ECUADOR LOOKING TO CONCLUDE FTA ¶1. (C) Summary: According to the Ecuadorian Minister of Trade, Ecuador is ready for a final FTA round. He hopes USTR will schedule such a round for the near future. Ecuador is ready to be flexible on agriculture, as well as other outstanding issues. He said he did not want to hold a partial round, excluding agriculture and intellectual property in February. If the FTA could not be concluded soon, he said he would resign the Ministry rather than finish out the year. End Summary. ¶2. (C) Minister of Trade Jorge Illingworth, at his request, met with the Ambassador on February 11 to discuss the status of FTA negotiations with the U.S. Illingworth said he and Chief Negotiator Manuel Chiriboga have spent the past few weeks traveling throughout Ecuador consulting with the various sectors and preparing to close the negotiations. Ecuador is ready for a closing, he claimed, stating that he has now obtained the flexibility necessary to conclude. ¶3. (C) Illingworth is aware that the Occidental Petroleum dispute is playing a role in USTR,s stance at this time and noted that he was not aware of the state-of-play on the Oxy dispute (which is very close-hold within the Presidency). Nor was it clear to him whether Colombia actually wished to close in the round being held this week, given the electoral situation in that country. USTR had contacted Chiriboga, he said, suggesting that the U.S. would not close with Ecuador until the Oxy situation was resolved. USTR had also indicated that it may not have time for Ecuador on the dates previously agreed (Feb 22-24). In any case, neither agriculture nor intellectual property negotiators were scheduled to meet at that time. ¶4. (C) Ecuador would like a single round, including all issues, as soon as possible in order to conclude the negotiations, Illingworth said. If that meant delay until March, that was fine. A partial round to close out relatively easy issues would to accomplish little and was not worth holding. Flexibility on Ag -------------- ¶5. (C) On agriculture, Illingworth said that Ecuador would still like one exclusion from the agreement. If that were impossible, the GOE would propose 25-year phase-outs. However, he confided, he had obtained agreement for Ecuador to accept 20-year phase outs if that were necessary. As for tuna, he had been told by USTR that Ecuador's offer was being examined. He hoped it would make a basis for agreement. Ecuador was ready to conclude, and he would aim to do so regardless of the status of negotiations with Colombia. ¶6. (C) Illingworth expressed his frustration about the pace of negotiations. USTR had not engaged with Ecuador since November, he said. He had taken this job in order to bring the FTA to conclusion and get it through the Ecuadorian Congress. He was willing to burn himself in order to accomplish that. However, if the FTA was not going to be concluded in the next couple of months the electoral season would begin and it would be clear that the goal could not be reached. If he was not going to get the FTA negotiated and ratified, he would rather leave the ministry. ¶7. (C) Ambassador promised to pass on to Washington and USTR Illingworth's concerns. She noted that the Oxy situation does seem to be coming to a head, and that the wrong decision on Oxy would make it impossible for the USG to continue to negotiate with Ecuador. She also noted that, while they may be overshadowed at the moment by the potential disaster of Oxy, there are a number of other commercial disputes which the GOE very much needs to resolve. JEWELL