The Minister of Economy, María Luisa Hayem, announced on Tuesday night the official beginning of negotiations with China for a free trade agreement, after more than a year since President Nayib Bukele indicated a “soon signing” of an agreement. commercial.
“I hereby announce the official launch of negotiations for a free trade agreement between El Salvador and China,” the official said in a short press conference in which journalists were not allowed questions, nor were times specified.
Hayem assured that “this announcement seeks to deepen economic relations, enhance investment opportunities, as well as mutual cooperation.”
“We are sure that we are in the best moment to strengthen trade and investment ties with a strategic partner, like China,” he noted.
The minister stated that “this is the most ambitious and complete negotiation that El Salvador has undertaken in recent years” and noted that “joint work will be carried out to agree, as soon as possible, on the terms of reference of the negotiation that will contemplate, among others, the general principles and the respective roadmap to follow in the negotiation.
The representative of International Trade and Vice Minister of Commerce of China, Wang Shouwen, indicated virtually that they seek to “sign the treaty as soon as possible” and stated that “today marks a milestone in the history of economic and commercial relations.”
“We hope that this helps create better conditions to boost cooperation,” he declared during his virtual participation.
He hopes, as he expressed, that “both negotiating teams can have close communication to convene the first round of negotiations as soon as possible, which will lay the most solid foundations for subsequent negotiations.”
El Salvador announced on August 20, 2018 the breaking of relations with Taiwan to establish ties with China, when the country was governed by the leftist Salvador Sánchez Cerén, of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a party of which he was a member. and mayor of two cities, the current president Nayib Bukele.