FX.co ★ Ecuador renounces trade benefits from U.S.

On June 27, the government of Ecuador announced its intention to reject the trade benefits provided by the U.S. in protest against the persecution of former CIA agent Edward Snowden, Reuters informs.
"Ecuador will not accept pressures or threats from anyone, and it does not traffic in its values or allow them to be subjugated to mercantile interests," government spokesman Fernando Alvarado said. What is more, Ecuador offered the U.S. $23 million for human rights training.
On June 26, Ecuador was reported to have issued Snowden with a temporary travel pass, however the national government refuted this information claiming that a decision on Snowden’s request for asylum can take months.
The ex-CIA whistleblower arrived at Moscow's Sheremetyevo on June 23 from Hong Kong, and he is still stuck in the transit terminal having difficulties in buying tickets due to lack of proper documents.
Edward Snowden drew the media attention in early June, when he told journalists about tracking phone and internet traffic in the U.S. He is currently hiding from the U.S. authorities attempting to extradite him.
In 2012, helped by the U.S. trade preferences, Ecuador exported a $5.4 billion worth of oil, $166 million of cut flowers, $122 million of fruit and vegetables, and $80 million of tuna. The U.S. trade benefits boosted Ecuador’s flower industry; about 100,000 people are employed in the sector.
The Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA), enacted in 2002, seeks to promote the production and export of legal goods from Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Columbia instead of narcotics. The U.S. Senate extended trade preferences under the ATPDEA several times, so now they are only scheduled to expire on July 31, 2013. To date, Ecuador is the only beneficiary of the ATPDEA left after all the other countries were excluded from it by the end of the 2000s. Bolivia was suspended from the ATPDEA in 2008 for drug trafficking. Earlier, Peru and Columbia were deprived of the exemptions; these two nations now have free trade agreements with the U.S.