Rivadeneira was appointed in June 2013 to head the newly created foreign trade ministry, formerly just part of the foreign ministry. His standout achievement during his 20-month tenure was the successful negotiation of Ecuador’s adhesion, on its own terms, to the existing European Union (EU) Association Agreement with Colombia and Peru. This deal, inked in mid-2014, is currently undergoing the tortuous internal parliamentary ratifications required to take effect.
Rivadeneira, who said he would now return to his “true passion” of university lecturing and academia, also personally led the dialogue process with Colombia and Peru to try and resolve the January trade dispute. This was the product of Ecuador’s decision to impose safeguard tariffs of 21% on Colombian imports and 7% on Peruvian imports. Ecuador said that these were remedial measures for the appreciation of the US dollar against the Colombian Peso and the Peruvian Nuevo Sol, which damages dollarised Ecuador’s competitiveness.
President Correa insisted the tariffs were completely legal but on 5 February Ecuador backed down, agreeing to remove the safeguards by 27 February. This is not the end of the matter, however, as the CAN secretariat issued a ruling on 6 February upholding a complaint lodged by Colombia and Peru and outlawing the imposition of such safeguards. This incensed Correa who, on 11 February, announced that he was mooting pulling Ecuador out of the CAN which “serves very little purpose” and that his government would “seriously evaluate” its’ membership.
The Venezuelan government made a similar threat for some time before eventually withdrawing from the CAN (formally announcing its decision to exit 2006). Ecuador’s private sector expressed concern that Correa might follow suit. Blasco Peñaherrera, the president of the Quito chamber of commerce, said that it would be a “monumental error” that would succeed only in further isolating Ecuador “thanks to the erratic leadership of President Correa and his government in setting foreign and trade policy”.
Peñaherrera added that “at any time, but now more than ever when exports must be the national priority to diminish the trade deficit, leaving the CAN is not a decision that should even be contemplated”. He went on: “State policies must be analysed carefully and deeply and always based on technical aspects rather than motivated by personal whims, tantrums or revenge. The CAN is the preferred single market for Ecuador and has generated US$20bn of healthy trade between the Andean countries since its creation”.
Correa announced that Ecuador would replace the import safeguards with alternative multilateral tariff measures, allowed under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, with blanket application rather than targeting just Colombia and Peru. He said these would be “equally legitimate”.
Correa designated Diego Aulestia Valencia to succeed Rivadeneira, and his first job will be formulating these new multilateral tariff measures. Aulestia had been urban development and housing minister since December 2013 before his appointment. He has also served as ambassador to Portugal and regional representative for economic issues in Europe, as well as executive president of Ecuador’s State-owned bank Banco del Estado (BEDE), and an executive role with the Andean development corporation (CAF).
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