Politics may decide ultimate success of China-Ecuador free-trade agreement

Veteran seafood trader Didier Boon said he believes the success of the proposed China-Ecuador free-trade deal, which expected to be signed by December 2022, won’t succeed if Ecuador doesn’t kowtow to China’s global political agenda.

Boon, the managing director of Beijing-based East China Seas, which imports seafood to china and supplies buyers in the E.U., U.S., and Latin America with processed seafood from China, said China’s effective abandonment of its trade deal with Australia after the latter questioned China in international fora about the origins of COVID provided a cautionary tale of how China is willing to weaponize trade to achieve foreign policy goals. China’s de facto ban on Australian goods and a propaganda campaign against the country turned Chinese buyers off the country’s imports and resulted in an industry-led review of Australia’s national seafood export strategy ... 

Photo courtesy of Didier Boon