VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHQT #0403 0442130
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 132130Z FEB 06
FM AMEMBASSY QUITO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3623
INFO RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 5350
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ FEB LIMA 0324
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 1563
RUEHGL/AMCONSUL GUAYAQUIL 9913

UNCLAS QUITO 000403 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/AND 
STATE PASS USTR FOR BHARMAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD ECON PREL EC
SUBJECT: ECUADOR LOOKING TO CONCLUDE FTA 
 
 ¶1.  (C) Summary:  According to the Ecuadorian Minister of 
Trade, Ecuador is ready for a final FTA round.  He hopes USTR 
will schedule such a round for the near future.  Ecuador is 
ready to be flexible on agriculture, as well as other 
outstanding issues.  He said he did not want to hold a 
partial round, excluding agriculture and intellectual 
property in February.  If the FTA could not be concluded 
soon, he said he would resign the Ministry rather than finish 
out the year.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (C) Minister of Trade Jorge Illingworth, at his request, 
met with the Ambassador on February 11 to discuss the status 
of FTA negotiations with the U.S.  Illingworth said he and 
Chief Negotiator Manuel Chiriboga have spent the past few 
weeks traveling throughout Ecuador consulting with the 
various sectors and preparing to close the negotiations. 
Ecuador is ready for a closing, he claimed, stating that he 
has now obtained the flexibility necessary to conclude. 
 
¶3.  (C) Illingworth is aware that the Occidental Petroleum 
dispute is playing a role in USTR,s stance at this time and 
noted that he was not aware of the state-of-play on the Oxy 
dispute (which is very close-hold within the Presidency). 
Nor was it clear to him whether Colombia actually wished to 
close in the round being held this week, given the electoral 
situation in that country.  USTR had contacted Chiriboga, he 
said, suggesting that the U.S. would not close with Ecuador 
until the Oxy situation was resolved.  USTR had also 
indicated that it may not have time for Ecuador on the dates 
previously agreed (Feb 22-24).  In any case, neither 
agriculture nor intellectual property negotiators were 
scheduled to meet at that time. 
 
¶4.  (C) Ecuador would like a single round, including all 
issues, as soon as possible in order to conclude the 
negotiations, Illingworth said.  If that meant delay until 
March, that was fine.  A partial round to close out 
relatively easy issues would to accomplish little and was not 
worth holding. 
 
Flexibility on Ag 
----------------- 
 
¶5.  (C) On agriculture, Illingworth said that Ecuador would 
still like one exclusion from the agreement.  If that were 
impossible, the GOE would propose 25-year phase-outs. 
However, he confided, he had obtained agreement for Ecuador 
to accept 20-year phase outs if that were necessary.  As for 
tuna, he had been told by USTR that Ecuador's offer was being 
examined.  He hoped it would make a basis for agreement. 
Ecuador was ready to conclude, and he would aim to do so 
regardless of the status of negotiations with Colombia. 
 
¶6.  (C) Illingworth expressed his frustration about the pace 
of negotiations.  USTR had not engaged with Ecuador since 
November, he said.  He had taken this job in order to bring 
the FTA to conclusion and get it through the Ecuadorian 
Congress.  He was willing to burn himself in order to 
accomplish that.  However, if the FTA was not going to be 
concluded in the next couple of months the electoral season 
would begin and it would be clear that the goal could not be 
reached.  If he was not going to get the FTA negotiated and 
ratified, he would rather leave the ministry. 
 
¶7.  (C) Ambassador promised to pass on to Washington and USTR 
Illingworth's concerns.  She noted that the Oxy situation 
does seem to be coming to a head, and that the wrong decision 
on Oxy would make it impossible for the USG to continue to 
negotiate with Ecuador.  She also noted that, while they may 
be overshadowed at the moment by the potential disaster of 
Oxy, there are a number of other commercial disputes which 
the GOE very much needs to resolve. 
JEWELL