LatinNews Daily - 05 February 2026

*Ecuador and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have concluded technical negotiations for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (Cepa). The negotiations, which began in August 2025, covered 19 areas, including market access, rules of origin, services, intellectual property, and cooperation. According to a statement from Ecuador’s ministry of production, foreign trade, and investment, the agreement would see 98% of Ecuadorean goods that were covered in the negotiations given preferential access to the Emirati market, with tariffs to be immediately eliminated for 75% of those products, including key exports such as shrimp, fresh roses, banana, frozen vegetables, and processed tuna. The statement noted that Ecuador’s exports to the UAE totalled US$1.37bn from 2020-2024, and said that exports could rise to up to US$1bn a year by 2030 once the agreement comes into force. Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa also met yesterday with his Dominican counterpart Luis Abinader while they were both in the UAE to attend the World Governments Summit. In a social media post, Noboa said that they had discussed the possibility of a trade deal between Ecuador and the Dominican Republic, saying that they “agreed on the importance of strengthening the growth of trade exchanges, the productive chain, investment, and economic reactivation via an agreement that boosts employment and competitivity in both countries”.

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