DistantNews
Support us
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Elections & Politics

Ecuador and Panama lay groundwork for trade agreement negotiations

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire From a news agency New plan
  • Ecuador and Panama signed terms of reference for negotiating a partial-scope economic complementarity agreement during Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino’s visit to Ecuador.
  • Officials said the agreement could expand trade, improve business links and use both countries as platforms for reaching wider markets.
  • Ecuador exported $58.1 million in non-oil goods to Panama in the first half of 2026, compared with $44.8 million in imports.

Ecuador and Panama have taken the first formal step toward negotiating a partial-scope trade agreement, signing terms of reference during Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino’s visit to Guayaquil.

The political will of both countries

· Sariha MoyaEcuador’s minister used the phrase to describe the purpose of the negotiating framework.

Ecuadorian Economic and Productive Development Minister Sariha Moya and Panama’s Minister of Commerce and Industries Julio Moltó signed the document at a ceremony attended by the two governments’ delegations. Moya described it as an expression of both countries’ political will to bring their economies closer, strengthen productive complementarity and improve conditions for businesses and productive sectors.

Moltó called the document a roadmap for the negotiations. He said Panama’s geographic position, maritime and air connectivity, and ports could help link Ecuadorian businesses with Central America, the Caribbean and markets beyond the region. He also said Panama was interested in expanding the presence of some of its products in Ecuador.

A roadmap

· Julio MoltóPanama’s minister’s description of the terms of reference for the negotiations.

Trade figures cited by Ecuador’s Ministry of Economic Development show that Ecuador’s non-oil exports to Panama reached $58.1 million from January through June 2026, compared with $44.8 million in imports. That gave Ecuador a $13.1 million surplus.

We should not compete, but complement each other.

· Javier Martínez AchaPanama’s foreign minister described the countries’ economic relationship and their shared use of regional connectivity.

Foreign ministers Roberto Kury of Ecuador and Javier Martínez Acha of Panama also attended the meeting and described the document as confirmation of the strong state of diplomatic relations. Martínez Acha said Ecuador is the second-largest Latin American user of the Panama Canal and sometimes ranks first. He said the countries should complement rather than compete with each other, and proposed building an economic corridor and an alliance for selling jointly to third markets.

Why should we think only about what Panama can sell to Ecuador or Ecuador can sell to Panama? Let us think about what we can sell together to the world.

· Javier Martínez AchaHe proposed using the bilateral relationship to reach third markets jointly.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog