LatinNews Daily - 23 March 2026

Ecuador: On 13 March US Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer and Ecuador’s minister of production, foreign trade and investment, Luis Alberto Jaramillo, signed a reciprocal trade agreement, finalising measures first outlined in a deal announced in November along with deals for Argentina, El Salvador, and Guatemala. According to a USTR statement, US President Donald Trump’s administration “is unlocking commercially meaningful market access for American farmers and manufacturers, opening Ecuador’s market of over 18 million consumers to U.S. agricultural and industrial exports”. According to a statement by Ecuador’s ministry of production, foreign trade and investment, the agreement eliminates levies on 53% of Ecuador’s non-oil exports to the US, worth US$2.79bn in trade based on 2025 data. It adds that key products gaining more competitive access include fruits such as bananas, plantains, pineapples, and mangoes; traditional goods such as coffee; and seafood. The same statement says that agricultural machinery, industrial equipment and construction machinery from the US will be able to enter tariff-free. The announcement comes despite uncertainty after a 20 February US supreme court ruling invalidated part of Trump’s comprehensive tariff framework. The signing of the deal also came the day after the USTR announced that it had launched investigations into 60 countries, including Ecuador, to determine whether these had failed to take action on forced labour. Other countries in the region targeted include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

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