Ecuador’s private sector is putting pressure on President Rafael Correa to make a concerted effort to improve trade relations with the US for fear that his decision to grant diplomatic asylum to Julian Assange, the founder of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, will have negative repercussions. Specifically, the private sector is fretting that the US will terminate Ecuador’s trade privileges under the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (Atpdea). The Correa administration granted diplomatic asylum (on 16 August) to Julian Assange, who had sought refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London on 19 June, after losing his legal battle to…