Trade Deals with Ecuador May Fall if NSA Leaker Given Asylum
Powerful lawmakers vowed to stop giving Ecuador preferential trade treatment if the country agrees to grant asylum to Edward Snowden, who leaked classified information on a National Security Agency program. "Our government will not reward countries for bad behavior," said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez, D-N.J (here). "If Snowden is granted asylum in Ecuador, I will lead the effort to prevent the renewal of Ecuador's duty-free access under GSP and will also make sure there is no chance for renewal of the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act. Trade preferences are a privilege granted to nations, not a right. I urge [Ecuador's] President Correa to do the right thing by the United States and Ecuador, and deny Snowden's request for asylum."
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House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin, D-Mich., also said he would stand in the way of extending trade deals with the country. "There's been issues about Ecuador all along," he told The Hill newspaper (here). "And if they do this, there's no basis for even discussing it." The Andean Trade Preference Act and ATPDEA expire at the end of July.
A spokesman for Ecuador did not seem to be concerned about the trade relationship during an press conference, according a report from Reuters (here). "Ecuador will not accept pressures or threats from anyone, and it does not traffic in its values or allow them to be subjugated to mercantile interests," a spokesman said at a news conference. "Ecuador gives up, unilaterally and irrevocably, the said customs benefits," he said.