Ecuador

Political relations

President Correa made an official visit to Paris and Lyon on 6-8 November 2013. His meeting with President Hollande resulted in a joint statement in which they agreed to develop scientific, academic and cultural cooperation and to strengthen trade between the two countries. This visit helped to give new impetus to the bilateral relationship.

Several high-level meetings have taken place in the last six years:

• Visit to Quito by Ms Christiane Taubira, Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice, on 27-29 November 2012, for the Meeting of Ministers of Justice of the Americas, organized by the Organization of American States (OAS). This visit was also an opportunity for working meetings with the Judicial Council and the Constitutional Court, which confirmed Ecuador’s interest in strengthening bilateral cooperation, particularly in the area of training judges.
• Visit to Ecuador by Ms Nicole Bricq, Minister of Foreign Trade, on 4-5 December 2012. This visit was an opportunity to sign a financial protocol on the Cuenca tramway project and to highlight how French companies could contribute to the construction of the Quito metro. It was an opportunity for the Ecuadorian authorities to confirm that they had no intention of terminating the investment protection agreement (IPA) with France.

In 2014, the France-Ecuador friendship group of the French National Assembly travelled to Ecuador in September, and the Minister of State for Foreign Trade, the Promotion of Tourism and French Nationals Abroad travelled to Quito in December with a business delegation. In November 2015, Mr Jean-Pierre Bel, Personal Envoy of the President of the French Republic for Latin America and the Caribbean, made a visit to meet with the Ecuadorian authorities. Mr Guillaume Long, who was then the Ecuadorian Minister of Culture and responsible for international relations, visited France in February 2016 to open a major exhibition of pre-Colombian Ecuadorian art at the Quai Branly Museum.

Economic relations

France plays a relatively small role in the Ecuadorian economy and it continues to run a bilateral trade deficit with the country: in 2015, French exports to Ecuador rose 26.2% to €145 million, which was over twice the growth of French exports to Latin America (+11.8%). French exports to Ecuador have therefore risen by 52.06% over two years, though they have not yet returned to the record level reached in 2012 (€163.6 million). French imports from Ecuador, meanwhile, rose 5.5% to €359 million, growing faster than total French imports (+0.8%). Ecuador is France’s 75ᵗʰ-largest supplier, ranking one place higher than in 2014, and its 7ᵗʰ-largest in Latin America.

As regards investments, with a stock of about US $500 million, France has positioned itself as the third-largest European investor over the past 15 years. During Mr Fekl’s visit to Quito in December 2014, it was decided that a French-Ecuadorian working group on trade and investments should be set up. Its first meeting was held in March 2015. The main trading prospects in Ecuador are related to transport, water, energy and aeronautics.

Nineteen French companies have commercial branches or subsidiaries in Ecuador. They include groups such as Alcatel, Hôtel Mercure, Ibis, Schneider, Sanofi Aventis, Coface Rating, Bic, CGG, Pernod Ricard and Alstom. Lafarge, the leading French investor in Ecuador, sold all its assets to the Peruvian company Unacem in May 2014. Meanwhile, Veolia has taken over the water concession in Guayaquil and Banque Lazard played an important role in restructuring Ecuador’s external debt in 2009. In April 2010, EDF signed an agreement with CELEC, the Ecuadorian public electricity company, during a visit to France by the Ecuadorian Minister for Electricity and Renewable Energy, Mr Miguel Calahorrano. That same year, Lactalis acquired two plants for production of dairy products. More recently, Valhrona (Bongrain group) opened a factory producing luxury chocolates in July 2014; in June 2014, Accor group signed an agreement to build 10 Ibis hotels. The Agence Française de Développement (AFD, French Development Agency) has been authorized to operated in Ecuador since autumn 2014, and six loans have been granted since 2015. JC Decaux was awarded the advertising bus shelter contract of the city of Guayaquil on 22 May 2017 following an international call for tenders.

For more information visit: https://www.tresor.economie.gouv.fr/Pays/EC
(The economic mission in Colombia is also competent for Ecuador.)