Reviewed archive · April 17, 2026
Decree 359 ratified Ecuador–Korea SECA; entry into force is separate
Originally published April 17, 2026 · Reviewed September 25, 2026
Ecuador and South Korea signed their Strategic Economic Cooperation Agreement, or SECA, on September 2, 2025. South Korea's embassy described it as a 23-chapter accord covering trade in goods as well as cooperation in areas such as labor, the environment, financial services and public procurement. Signing was a diplomatic milestone, not an announcement that preferential tariffs had begun.
Ecuador's Constitutional Court issued a favorable constitutional opinion in March 2026. The National Assembly approved the agreement on April 14, with 83 votes in favor. Ecuador's Official Gazette then published Executive Decree 359 on April 15, ratifying the accord in full. These records document distinct steps in Ecuador's domestic approval process; the decree itself does not state an effective tariff date for a product.
In an August 4 account distributed by the Ecuadorian National Assembly, South Korea's ambassador said his government had submitted the agreement to its parliament in May and that the Korean legislative process was still underway. He hoped ratification would occur before the end of 2026. That was an expectation, not a completed action or a guaranteed date. The status described in the account is dated August 4; this page does not assert what later action Korea took.
The practical distinction for readers is between signing, Ecuador's ratification and a separately confirmed effective date. Decree 359 alone does not prove that a particular tariff fell to zero or that a shipment qualifies for a preference. No later effective-date notice was established from the primary records checked for this page on September 25, 2026. Current tariff treatment requires a separate, up-to-date official check.
Sources
This is a dated archive item. Publishing is paused, and later developments may have changed the situation.