Ecuador and DR begin negotiations for a partial trade agreement

Quito.- Ecuador and Dominican Republic decided this Wednesday to begin negotiations to reach a partial trade agreement, the Ecuadorian Presidency indicated when reporting on the meeting, in Punta Cana, of the leaders Daniel Noboa and Luis Abinader, respectively.

In a statement, it was indicated that both leaders agreed to advance the dialogues for the signing of a Partial Scope Trade Agreement, an instrument with which trade, investment and mutual cooperation will be strengthened. It was also defined that the foreign ministers of the two nations work in coordination on the development of areas of bilateral interest such as free trade zones, tourism, health, migratory affairs, human mobility, and energy and mines, mainly with regard to natural gas.

The leaders also expressed the need to strengthen political dialogue through the holding of the I Meeting of the Political Consultation Mechanisms, in which the possibility of signing an Agreement on the Exchange of Migration Information can be addressed.

The Presidency recalled that the Dominican Republic is currently an important trading partner for Ecuador. In 2025 alone, exports reached 161 million dollars, it noted.

Last February, Noboa and Abinader met in Dubai, where they already discussed the need for negotiation of a trade agreement. The meeting took place within the framework of the agenda that both leaders were fulfilling at the World Government Summit (WGS) held in that city in the United Arab Emirates.

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By then, the Ecuadorian government indicated that the presidents discussed mechanisms to "strengthen trade and investment between both countries" and opportunities for economic cooperation, interest in strategic projects, joint tourism promotion initiatives, and coordinated work on regional security and defense of democracy. In that context, "they agreed on the importance of strengthening the progress of trade exchanges, productive chaining, investments, and economic reactivation through an agreement that promotes employment and competitiveness in the nations," the Presidency added then. In 2023, under the Presidency of Guillermo Lasso, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic had already decided to undertake negotiations with the aim of reaching a "partial scope" trade agreement, the most basic of trade agreements between countries, which involves general understandings on tariffs and on a basic basket of goods from the commercial offer of each of the parties.