Ecuador Needs Job-Generating Investment
Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa expressed her country's interest in fostering productive job-generating investment within the appropriate legal framework.

A team of experts is evaluating Ecuador's interests in international and investment agreements, the minister told reporters on Friday.

Espinosa complained about the free trade agreements, which provide free access, no restrictions, opening and legal guarantees to foreign investments, but nothing to national investors.

She added that Ecuador has signed several agreements on the protection of investments and criticized the investment accord with the United States.

As an example, she mentioned the dispute with the US oil company Oxy and the lawsuit that company filed at the ICSID (International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes).

"Ecuador must go to the ICSID," an agency that is controlled by the country that allegedly must defend impartiality (the United States).

"That is, the fight has already been lost since the beginning. You are going to defend your rights in a dispute-solving system that you don't control and you have no chance to win," she stressed in reference to the ICSID.

Some Ecuadorians have never thought of national interest, because they are attorneys for foreign companies who look after foreign benefits, the minister noted.