Foreign Minister-designate Dr Nina Pacari today described the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) that the United States is promoting as "suicide".
"It would be suicide for Ecuador under current conditions; not even the nation's business sector would have guarantees", she said in an interview with Gamavision. The incoming foreign minister said it is imperative to strengthen the Andean Community (CAN,) comprised of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela as a way to deal with FTAA.
Indigenous people believe that if the country joins the FTAA, local industries would be seriously affected and could close in the face of foreign competition, particularly in view of the production costs in an economy that has been dollarized since 2000.
The country's social movements oppose FTAA, and President-elect Lucio Gutierrez himself has said that it is a "threat" to the economy of this Andean nation.
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