Ecuador's election influenced by US-China frictions
Anti-China conditions attached to a new loan from the US’ Development Finance Corporation underscore leading candidates’ international alignments
Mat Youkee February 4, 2021
Protestors outside Ecuador's presidential palace oppose a trade and investment agreement with the US' Development Finance Corporation, which recently extended a loan to pay-off the country's debt to China (image: Alamy)
Last month’s extension of a US$3.5 billion credit line to help Ecuador pay off its debt to China hinted at the confrontational approach of the recently formed US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to Chinese finance in Latin America. Foreign policy is low among voter concerns as debt-distressed Ecuador holds first round presidential elections on Sunday. However, with the country in need of international support to recover from the pandemic, the DFC loan puts leading candidates’ choice of partner in even sharper contrast.
The DFC loan, agreed by outgoing president Lenin Moreno, is to develop key projects, mainly extractives, and is conditional on Ecuador excluding Chinese technology from the telecoms sector. The DFC’s CEO Adam Boehler said: “This framework agreement allows the DFC to streamline support for projects that refinance predatory Chinese debt and help Ecuador improve on the value of its strategic assets.”
Yet, by using its financial muscle to support foreign policy goals, the DFC’s actions are similar to those of major Ecuador creditors China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China, according Paulina Garzón, director of the China-Latin America Sustainable Investments initiative.
“The loan is clearly intended to strike at Ecuador’s relationship with China,” Garzón said in a phone interview. “I think it is ill-advised. It has amplified the debate about which power Ecuador aligns with. When it becomes subject to more scrutiny, I think it will be rejected by the public.”
If Arauz wins and goes with China, Ecuador will lose not only the US’s good will but its money as well.
More:
https://dialogochino.net/en/trade-investment/39714-ecuadors-election-influenced-by-us-china-frictions/
Trump, doing evil right up to the last minute.
(The signs with the protesters say "Do not belive that.")
