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| Screenshot of the awps.is website |
A filtration The diplomatic communications between Ecuador and the European Union were announced on October 8. The communications refer to the negotiations of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) recently approved between the Latin American country and the European Community and which is pending ratification by the congresses of the countries involved.
The reporting platform Transparent Ecuador that together with Associated Whistleblowing Press (AWP) has published the leak, comment in this regard:
The material shows the pressure exerted by the EU, whose interests subvert principles expressed in the Ecuadorian constitution, as well as some specific laws. In addition, the inconsistency of the Ecuadorian government's public discourse in relation to the negotiations is noted.
The Spanish newspaper eldiario.es bounced the leak of nine diplomatic cables, describing them as “very tense messages that reveal the European Commission’s pressure on Ecuador to change essential laws and economic policy to adjust them to a Free Trade Agreement, under the threat of excluding Ecuador from tariff aid to developing countries.”
Collected versions According to the Ecuadorian newspaper El Universo, the former government officials involved in the leaked documents, Fernando Yépez Lasso, former Ecuadorian ambassador to Belgium, and Kintto Lucas, former vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, confirmed the pressure from the EU. For his part, the current vice-minister and minister of Commerce, Francisco Rivadeneira, denied the pressure and described it as an interpretation by the Spanish newspaper.
The European Union also denied pressures. According to Peter Schwaiger, head of the EU mission in Ecuador, this is an “invention”. On the other hand, the Public News Agency of Ecuador and South America, ANDES, in a statement report of its Investigation Unit, says that the leak "evidences the participation of national and international organizations in a new espionage of diplomatic communications of high-level officials of the Ecuadorian government."
The day before, journalist and former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kintto Lucas, had tweeted:
The Ecuador Decides blog reproduced a article from the Diagonal Global website, which analyzes the FTA negotiations focusing on the probable amendments to the Constitution and the suspension of bilateral treaties on reciprocal investment protection, which are the points that European negotiators are putting pressure on.
The Constitution of Montecristi –promulgated in 2007 and which includes a large number of social demands defended in long cycles of popular mobilizations and uprisings– prohibits the signing of treaties that cede sovereign jurisdiction to international arbitration, demands protective measures for the agri-food and fishing sector, gives priority in public purchases to national products and services, protects national production and seeks to strengthen internal markets. However, according to the analyst and historical activist Edgar Isch, the text of the agreement signed between Ecuador and the EU It barely incorporates any modifications with respect to those of Colombia and Peru, very minor reservations regarding public purchases, and the inclusion in the annexes of some exceptions and deadlines for sensitive products, similar to those existing with respect to the other two Andean countries.
The website Villages on the Way qualified the negotiation of the FTA as a turn to the right by Rafael Correa, the Ecuadorian president:
The abusive and arrogant imperial attitude of the Europeans is not surprising, nor are the servile decisions, in violation of the Monte Cristi Constitution, with which Correa, in the name of sovereignty, 21st Century Socialism and the lying verbiage against bourgeois “bigwigs” and empires, hands over Ecuador with full hands with the support of a national and international sectarian left that believes his speech and refuses to see the facts, even though they know them very well and they explode in their faces. 21st Century Capitalism is also being built in Ecuador.
Another former minister of the current regime, Alberto Acosta, also expressed his opinion on Twitter:
Acosta commented on a interview La Marea.com, where he highlights the shift towards right-wing ideologies by President Correa, says that the FTAs go beyond mere trade:
In recent decades, free trade agreements have been signed, even if they are called by other names. […] They include the terms of Singapore, not only the commercial ones: intellectual property, access to public services, protection of foreign investments, access to agricultural goods markets, sanitary measures, competition policies, the resolution of differences… a huge number of issues. […] If they reach an agreement, that will impose rules of the game on a large part of the planet. And we know the reasons for this, facing China and India. Trade agreements are not only about trade and do not open commercial freedom. For example, the Europeans are not going to dismantle their subsidies to agriculture. And our farmers are going to face unfair competition because they will not be able to access similar aid, via subsidies.
Consulted about the consequences on the subject of intellectual property, the expert on Internet issues in Ecuador, Alfredo Velazco, from Internet users in Ecuador try to look a little beyond the back and forth caused by the leak:
Incidentally, after the signing of the Agreement with the European Union, a reform to the Penal Code was sent from the Presidency to penalize people up to US$$ 200,000 for intellectual property issues, without specifying scope or exceptions. On the other hand, the push for digital canonThis is another of the topics that have gained momentum. These would be the first impacts that we, the users, would be receiving.
Despite all this, and the risks pointed out signing this Free Trade Agreement, the ratification of the FTA with the European Union seems to be a fait accompli. One more of the various contradictions of the regime of President Rafael Correa.
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