Cablegate: Ecuador: Demarche On Wto Doha Industrial Goods

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RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHQT #2221 2711751
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 281751Z SEP 07
FM AMEMBASSY QUITO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7826
INFO RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ SEP GUAYAQUIL 2863
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0379

UNCLAS QUITO 002221

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

USTR WASHINGTON (CMORROW), USTR GENEVA (LMOLAR), USDOC
(JJANICKE AND EDUNN), STATE/EEB (ASCHEIBE), AND TREASURY
(WSCHALL)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ETRD ECON WTRO EC
SUBJECT: ECUADOR: DEMARCHE ON WTO DOHA INDUSTRIAL GOODS
TARIFF NEGOTIATIONS

REF: A. STATE 131348

B. QUITO 2019

1. (SBU) EconCouns presented reftel A demarche regarding
proposed approach for non-agricultural market access (NAMA)
for small, vulnerable economies to Mentor Villagomez, Under
Secretary for Economic and Trade Affairs at the Ecuadorian

SIPDIS
Foreign Ministry. Villagomez said that Ecuador's initial
reaction to the proposal is that it is "not bad" for Ecuador,
but that Ecuador would have to continue to analyze the
proposal.

2. (U) Villagomez said that he would have to consult with
his colleagues at the Ministry of Industries regarding the
specific tariff line impacts that the proposal would have,
but noted that Ecuador had recently lowered approximately
1,400 tariff lines to zero. (As noted in reftel B, Ecuador
is reducing 1,957 tariff lines to either zero or five
percent, from the previous levels which had ranged from 2-20
percent.)

3. (SBU) Villagomez added that Ecuador is also interested in
how it can address its offensive NAMA interests in the Doha
Round, noting as an example that it wants the European Union
to lower its tariff on Ecuadorian canned tuna (currently over
20 percent) and to use "GSP-plus" as the starting point for
negotiations.
JEWELL

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