Towards the end of June, the European Union suspended talks to close an agreement that set Thailand as a trade partner and leading supplier of shrimps and canned tuna to the Community market. This interruption occurred as a result of the relatively recent coup d’état in this Asian country and the scandal to do with employing slave labour in the Thai fishing industry, which we reported on in our previous edition.
Coincidence or not, a few days ago, Ecuador and the EU closed a bilateral trade agreement after four years of delaying negotiations. This agreement will make it possible for a long list of Ecuadorian products to access the Community market, free of taxation, shrimp exports and canned tuna being some of the products that will most benefit from it.
The trade terms of this agreement will not come into place until the second half of 2016, so that it has also been ratified that, until then, the current system of customs preferences for Ecuadorian products will continue.
