WT/BOP/N/84  
20 June 2017 
(17-3298) Page: 1/7 
Committee on Balance -of-Payments Restrictions  Original:  Spanish  
 
  
NOTIFICATION UNDER PARAGRAPH 9 OF THE UNDERSTANDING  
ON THE BALANCE -OF-PAYMENTS PROVISIONS OF THE  
GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TARIFFS AND TRADE 1994  
COMMUNICATION FROM ECUADOR  
 The following communication, dated 1 6 June 2 017, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of Ecuador.  
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 WT/BOP/N/84  
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  Note No. 4-7-76/2017  
 
Geneva, 16 June 2 017 
 
 
Ambassador Xavier CARIM  
Chairman of the WTO General Council  
Geneva  
 
 
Dear Mr Chairman,  
 
By means of  Note No. 4-7-42/2015 of 2 April 2 015, the Chargé d'affaires  of this  Missio n 
serving as  the Permanent Representative to the WTO  notified the Chairman of the WTO General 
Council  of the adoption of a balance -of-payments safeguard  pursuant to  Foreign Trade Committee 
(COMEX) Resolution  No. 011-2015 that entered into force on  11 March 2 015. Copies  of the Note 
and the COMEX Resolution  are attached herewith . 
Foreign Trade Committee (COMEX) Resolution No. 021, which established the timetable for 
the phased dismantling of the above -mentioned safeguard, was also notified b y means of Note No. 
4-7-139/2016 of 10 October 2 016. This timetable  has been  strictly adhere d to throughout and  the 
final phase  was implemented  on 1 June 2 017 pursuant to the communica tion of the  Ministry of 
Foreign Trade  to the  National Customs Service of Ecuador , attached herewith to provide  greater  
detail  and clarity . 
Following this brief background and pursuant to  paragraph  9 of the Understanding on the 
Balance -of-Payments Provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 , I hereby 
notify you and,  through you , the General Council and the  Committee on Balanc e-of-Payments 
Restrictions  that the  Ministry of Foreign Trade , by means of  Official Circular 
No. MCE-MCE-2017-0041-O of 25 May 2 017 to the  National Customs Service  of Ecuador, provided 
for the implementation  as of 1 June 2 017 of the final  phase , corresponding to that month , of the 
timetable for dismantling the balance -of-payments safeguard measure  adopt ed in March 2 015, 
which  has now been fully phased out . 
I wish to express  the renewed thanks of the Ecuadorian Government and this Mission to 
you, Mr Chairman , and to the current  Chairman of the Committee on Balance -of-Payments 
Restrictions , Ambassador  Tudor ULIANOVSCHI , as well as to your predecessors and, it goes 
without saying , to Mr Willy Alfaro, the Director of the  WTO Trade Policy Review Divisi on, for your 
continued cooperation in the matter of  the balance -of-payments safeguard  adopt ed by the  
Ecuadorian Government  in March 2 015. 
 
Yours faithfully , 
 
 
Juan Falconi Puig  
Ambassador , Permanent Representative to the WTO  
 
 
c.c.:  Ambassador Tudor ULIANOVSCHI  
Chairman of the Committee on Balance -of-Payments Restrictions  
 
Mr Willy Alfaro , Director  
WTO Trade Policy Review Division  
 
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  ANNEX 1  
REPUBLIC OF ECUADOR  
FOREIGN TRADE COMMITTEE  
 No. 4-7-42/2015  
 
 2 April 2 015 
 
Ambassador Fernando DE MATEO Y VENTURINI  
Chairman of the WTO General Council  
 
 
Dear Mr Chairman,  
 
Upon instructions from my authorities and  pursuant to  paragraph 9 of the Understanding on 
the Balance -of-Payments Provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 , please 
find attached herewith the notification of the measure adopted  pursuant to  Foreign Trade 
Committee (COMEX) Resolution No. 011-2015 and two annexes . 
 
 
 
 
 Yours faithfully , 
 
 
 
 
 Humberto Jiménez Torres  
 Chargé d'affaires ad interim  
 
 
 
 
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  REPUBLIC OF ECUADOR  
FOREIGN TRADE COMMITTEE  
RESOLUTION NO. 011 -2015  
THE FOREIGN TRADE COMMITTEE IN PLENARY SESSION  
WHEREAS:  
According to Article 276 of the Constitution of the Republic, one of the objectives of Ecuador's 
development structure is to build a fair, democratic, productive, supportive and sustainable 
economic system ; 
Article 261, paragraph 5, of the Constitution provides that the central State has exclusive 
jurisdiction over economic, tax, customs, tariff and foreign trade  policies , inter alia ; 
Article 284, paragraphs 2 and 7, of the Constitution state that the obje ctives of economic policy 
are to encourage national production, systemic productivity and competitiveness, and  strategic 
integration into the world economy, as well as "to uphold economic buoyancy, understood as the 
maximum sustainable level of production and employment over time";  
Pursuant to Article XVIII, Section B, of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 
(GATT  1994), a developing country Member may , if experiencing balance -of-payments difficulties 
and needing  to maintain the implementation of its programme of economic development, restrict  
the quantity or value of merchandise, provided that the import restrictions instituted do  not 
exceed those nece ssary to forestall the threat of, or to stop, a serious decline  in its monetary 
reserves ; that is, it may regulate the general level of its imports in order to safeguard its  external 
financial position and to ensure a level of reserves adequate for the imp lementation of  its 
programme of economic development ; 
The Understanding on the Balance -of-Payments Provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs 
and Trade 1994 of the World Trade Organization (WTO) clarifies the provisions of Articles XII and  
XVIII, Secti on B,  of the GATT 1994 and of the 1979 Declaration on Trade Measures Taken for 
Balance -of-Payments Purposes, procedures for consultations, notification and documentation, and 
conclusions of consultations ; 
Article 2 of Resolution No. 70 of the Committee of Representatives of the Latin American 
Integration Association (LAIA) stipulates that member states shall not apply safeguard measures 
to imports originating in countries with a lower relative level of economic development in order to 
remedy imbalances in t heir overall balance of payments ; 
Pursuant to Article 125 of the Regulation Implementing Book IV of the Organic Code of Production, 
Trade and Investment (COPCI), the Ministry of Foreign Trade, as the governing body for foreign 
trade policy, has the authori ty to handle notifications and other procedures relating to 
balance -of-payments protection measures required by multilateral, regional or subregional 
organizations in the framework of which  Ecuador has signed trade agreements or treaties ; 
Article 71 of the COPCI, published in the Supplement to Official Journal No. 351 of 
29 December  2010, created the Foreign Trade Committee (COMEX) as the body entrusted with 
approving national public trade policies ; 
Article 72(e) and (k) of the COPCI provide  that the COMEX, as the governing body for trade policy, 
is responsible for regulating, facilitating or restricting the export, import, movement and transit of  
goods that have not been inward cleared or are not Ecuadorian, in the cases provided for  in the  
Code and in t he international agreements in force duly ratified by Ecuador ; 
Article 88 of the COPCI provides that the Ecuadorian State, through the governing body for trade  
policy, may adopt trade defence measures that restrict imports of products for 
balance -of-paymen ts protection, such as safeguard measures and any other mechanism 
recognized by international treaties duly ratified by Ecuador ; WT/BOP/N/84  
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  Executive Decree No. 25, published in the Supplement to Official Journal No. 19 of 2 0 June 2 013, 
created the Ministry of Foreig n Trade as the State body responsible for trade policy and, in  its 
Third Amending Provision, provided that it should preside over the COMEX ; 
In Official Circular No. M CPE-DM-O-2015-005 of 4 March 2 015, the Ministry responsible for 
economic  policy coordination established that there was a balance -of-payments disequilibrium in  
Ecuador and recommended the adoption of a measure that would influence the general level of  
imports for a period of 15 months ; 
In Technical Report No. 001/2015 of 5 March 2 015, the Inter -Agency Panel, made up of officials 
from the Ministry responsible for economic policy coordination, the Ministry responsible for the 
coordination of production, employment and competitiveness, the Ministry of Foreign Trade, the  
Ministry of Indust ries and Productivity and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Aquaculture and  
Fisheries issued recommendations regarding the scope and level of the tariff surcharge needed to 
safeguard the balance -of-payments equilibrium ; 
In exercise of the powers conf erred  upon it under  the COPCI, in accordance with Article 70 of the 
COMEX Operating Regulations , issued pursuant to  Resolution No. 001-2014 of 1 4 January 2 014, 
and other applicable regulations ; 
HEREBY DECIDES : 
Article 1 . To introduce a temporary and non -discriminatory tariff surcharge, calculated as an 
ad valorem  percentage on imports for consumption of the subheadings listed in the A nnex hereto, 
in order to regulate the general level of imports and thereby safeguard the balance -of-payments 
equilibrium . 
The tariff surcharge shall be applied on top of the tariffs currently in force, in accordance with 
Ecuador's Tariff and bilateral and regional trade agreements to which Ecuador is a party . 
Article 2 . The following imports shall be excluded from this safeguard  measure : 
(a) goods for import clearance that have been legally shipped to Ecuador, up to the date of 
entry into force of this Resolution;  
(b) goods covered by Article 125 of the COPCI;  
(c) goods imported under a customs regime other  than that provided for in Article  147 of  
the COPCI;  
(d) goods deriving from international cooperation in favour of beneficiaries in Ecuador who 
receive such assistance either through the public sector, through non -governmental 
organizations or through the relevant cooperation agencies;  
(e) goods o riginating in relatively less developed countries that are members of the Latin  
American Integration Association (LAIA), in accordance with Resolution No. 70 of the 
LAIA Committee of Representatives.  
The COMEX Executive Committee shall decide on whether or  not to  exclude the cases mentioned in 
subparagraph (d) above . 
Article 3 . The Ministry of Foreign Trade, the Ministry responsible for economic policy coordination 
and the Ministry responsible for the coordination of production, employment and competitivene ss 
shall be in charge of monitoring and assessing the implementation of this safeguard measure in 
order to ensure that it is commensurate with ongoing needs to overcome the balance -of-payments 
situation, the intention being to relax the measure as the bala nce improves and eliminate it when 
it is no longer necessary . WT/BOP/N/84  
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  Article 4 . The Ministry of Foreign Trade shall be responsible for notifying the measure referred to  
in this Resolution and for undertaking such procedures as may be necessary, subject to the 
time-frames and conditions set forth in the existing integration and international trade agreements 
to which Ecuador is a Party . 
FINAL  PROVISION  
This Resolution was adopted at the session of 6  March  2015 and shall enter into force on  
11 March  2015, without  prejudice to its publication in the Official Journal . 
 
Diego Aulestia Valencia    Iván Ortiz Wilchez  
CHAIRMAN    AD HOC SECRETARY  
 
 
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  ANNEX 2  
 
 Official Circular No. M CE-MCE-2017-0041-0 
 
 Quito, Metropolitan District, 25 May 2 017 
 
Subject : Implementation of the timetable for the dismantling of the balance -of-payments 
safeguard measure - June 2017 phase  
 
Mr Mauro Alejandro Andino Alarcón  
Director -General  
NATIONAL CUSTOMS SERVICE OF ECUADOR  
Delivered by hand  
 
 
Dear Sir,  
 
Resolution No. 021-2016 of the Foreign Trade Committee (COMEX) contains a table setting out the 
schedule of implementation of the timetable for dismantling the balance -of-payments safeguard 
measure , whereby  surcharges are reduced by one third on a monthly basis as from April and until 
June of this year . Furthermore , the second paragraph of Article 2 of COMEX Resolution 
No. 006-2016, adopted on 29  April 2016, provides that:  
 
 "(…) The Ministry of Foreign Trade (MCE) shall notify the National Customs Service of 
Ecuador (SENAE) regarding the implementation of the abo ve timetable ". 
 
Accordingly, I should be grateful if you would implement this final phase of the timetable for 
dismantling the said measure by reducing the 5.0 % surcharge to 0.0 % and the 11.7 % surcharge 
to 0.0% as of 1  June 2017. 
 
I would appreciate it  if you could let us know when this has been done . 
 
Accept, Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration . 
 
 
Pablo Cam pana Sáenz  
MINISTER OF FOREIGN TRADE  
 
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