Today, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. held a meeting with President Guillermo Lasso of Ecuador at the White House to establish a more robust economic and security collaboration between the U.S. and Ecuador. Both leaders discussed how to boost regional economic integration by way of the bilateral Trade and Investment Council Agreement, in addition to the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity effort. This includes the cultivation of investment, improving economic cooperation, setting higher standards for employees and nature, and giving opportunities to working families. The President declared that the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation will be distributing $13.5 million for microloans across Ecuador, with a focus on women-owned businesses. Additionally, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has expressed their intent to allocate $5 million to help support President Lasso’s plan to tackle child malnutrition in Ecuador by providing better sanitation and access to clean water in rural areas. The United States Trade and Development Agency acknowledged Ecuador’s dedication to increase fairness, openness, and disclosure in public procurement by inviting the country to join only 16 global stakeholders in their Global Procurement Initiative. This initiative will enable Ecuador’s public procurement officials to gain access to high-grade, dependable infrastructure by way of training. Additionally, the leaders decided to enhance security operations with the objective of aiding Ecuador’s campaign against gang related crime by facilitating the government’s ambition to fortify its law system, penitentiary institutions, and sea safety. Furthermore, the heads of state deliberated the relevance of collaboration with regard to migration matters regionally, as championed by the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Preservation. Ecuador has illustrated the way by providing Venezuelans who are escaping the serious problem in their homeland with Temporary Protected Status. The Global Concessional Financing Facility has been granted a $530 million loan, supported by the United States, to assist Ecuador in creating a more tolerant, robust, and carbon-reducing environment, as well as to aid in their mission to include Venezuelan refugees and immigrants. The United States revealed $20 million to back Ecuador when it comes to cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions, preserving biodiversity, rebooting the economy, and dealing with the problem of Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing.
