and beverages and apparel, textiles, and leather, respectively. With respect to age, the averages for all sectors were above the average for non-exporters (20 years) and firms in the oil sector were the youngest, while enterprises in the chemical sector were the oldest.<sup>14</sup> Regarding quality certification, it is notable that the two sectors with the largest shares of firms holding a quality certificate, on average, are food and beverages and wood and furniture. The first sector is related to human consumption and food security and, thus, certification seems to be important to enter foreign markets. On the other hand, wood and furniture requires certification for, at least, two reasons: (i) wood extraction should preserve natural forests (i.e., certification for wood from reforested areas); and, (ii) furniture should meet some quality standards to avoid accidents and guarantee comfort to its users. Most exporters (around 93 percent) in the apparel, textiles, and leather sector had loans in 2002. Finally, when web-use is considered, exporters in the food and beverages and the chemical sectors show the highest average share of internet use, which seems to be an essential tool for successfully trading in foreign markets; however, this share is relatively low in the apparel, textiles, and leather sector, which might be related to the degree of personal business ownership and, thus, lower risk-taking behavior and capital investment.

**Table 4: Means of selected variables for Ecuador’s exporters by industry**

|**Characteristic**|**Oil**<br>**products**|**Food and**<br>**beverages**|**Apparel,**<br>**textiles and**<br>**leather **|**Wood and**<br>**furniture**|**Chemical**<br>**products**|**Metallic**<br>**products**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Employees|127.9|299.6|119.6*|134.7|127.8|130.9|
|Age (years)|21.5*|25.3|26.7|26.0|28.2|25.3|
|Quality certificate (%)|36.8|39.4|3.4***|46.1|35.0|35.0|
|Loan (%)|73.7|87.9|93.1***|69.2|80.0|75.0|
|Publicly listed|||||||
|company S.A. (%)|57.9|72.7|55.1|46.2|65.0|75.0|
|Web-use(%)|63.2|84.8***|51.7**|61.5|85.0*|80.0|

Notes: Sample equals 134 firms. Data for year 2002. *Sector share is statistically different from the rest of the exporter’s sample at the 10 percent level. **Sector share is statistically different from the rest of the exporter’s sample at the 5 percent level. ***Sector share is statistically different from the rest of the exporter’s sample at the 1 percent level.

Source: ICS-Ecuador.

Given that Ecuador joined the Andean Community in 1993, reducing its import tariff ceiling from 290 percent to 27 percent, and that Ecuador and the U.S. can re-engage on negotiations regarding their bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), it is relevant looking at the means for some selected variables decomposing our sample of exporters by trade partner.<sup>15,16</sup> Table 5 disaggregates ten characteristics grouped by: (i) exporters claiming

> 14 See Table 2.

> 15 From 1994 to 2002, the U.S. share in Ecuador’s total exports decreased slightly from 40.4 percent to 39.9 percent, while the Andean Community share increased from 10.2 percent to 16.0 percent. In addition, the six most important categories of products exported to the U.S, which accounted for 76.0 percent (in 1994) and 89.2 percent (in 2002) of the total Ecuadorian exports to this country, were: (i) oil; (ii) fruits; (iii) fish, lobsters and shrimp; (iv) flowers; (v) cocoa; and, (vi) coffee and tea. With respect to the Andean community, the most important categories of products exported by Ecuador, which accounted for 67.7 percent (in 1994) and 63.3 percent (in 2002) of Ecuador’s total export to this economic bloc, were: (i) oil; (ii) fish, lobsters and shrimp; (iii) vegetal or animal oil; (iv) sugar; (v) vehicles; (vi) iron manufacturing; (vii) cotton; (viii) pharmaceuticals; and, (ix) cereals.

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