Ecuadorian business community anticipates President Noboa's visit to China

The upcoming trip of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa to China for talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping is being viewed positively by the South American nation's business community.

At the invitation of the Chinese president, Noboa will pay a state visit to China from August 16 to 23, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Friday. The Ecuadorian leader will be accompanied by government officials and business representatives from various industries.

Bilateral trade between Ecuador and China has surpassed 11 billion U.S. dollars. Several Ecuadorian products could see their phytosanitary protocols approved, including blueberries, avocados, milk, and proteins such as pork and chicken.

Rodrigo Gomez de la Torre, president of the Ecuadorian Business Committee, said the potential opening of new phytosanitary protocols is among the key expectations for the visit.

"We have a market of 1.4 billion people. We can increase dragon fruit exports, we could enter with broccoli, with canned goods, with heart of palm, with more cocoa and differentiated cocoa products. The question here is what opportunities we want to pursue in the Chinese market, obviously understanding the scale of that market," Gomez said.

Shrimp accounts for 75 percent of Ecuador's exports to China, making it critical to the economy as the sector generates more than 8 billion U.S. dollars in foreign exchange.

Ecuador's shrimp industry is seeking the lifting of restrictions on 14 exporting companies over sodium metabisulfite levels, hoping to establish a technical working group between Chinese customs and Ecuadorian health authorities to resolve the issue.

"I believe the technical working groups will be the outcome of the highest-level meetings, President Noboa's visit, because as a chamber we have relayed this to both the Ministry of Production and Foreign Affairs, given that the trade relationship between Ecuador and China is important for our country," said Jose Antonio Camposano, president of the National Chamber of Aquaculture.

The president of the Ecuador-Shanghai China Chamber of Commerce, Dario Regalado, underscored the importance of the visit for securing financing on favorable terms and promoting new investments in sectors such as mining.

"The results of the free trade agreement are already visible, and many of these exports are tied to direct or indirect investment by Chinese companies. There are two newly confirmed mining projects assigned to Chinese firms that are looking to develop their own power generation. There are opportunities to secure credit through the Bank of China and Eximbank, which is important on favorable terms, long-term, and not linked to oil. I think it is timely to maintain the relationship with China, to keep trade open. Maintaining a healthy relationship with China is also very relevant, because that opens up opportunities for other products in our trade balance to reach China," he said.

Ecuador's banana export sector views the presidential visit to China as a positive step toward strengthening trade relations, framed within the friendship between the two peoples. In the case of bananas, exports to the Asian country began under the Free Trade Agreement with a 10 percent tariff.

"Today it stands at 7 percent, and we hope that once we reach zero, we can double our position in China. Right now it represents 4 percent of what we are exporting. And with the boost from this presidential visit, we hope to position ourselves better each year. Obviously, we aspire to grow as much as we want to grow once we reach zero under that negotiation," said Jose Antonio Hidalgo, executive president of the Association of Banana Exporters of Ecuador.

Ecuadorian business community anticipates President Noboa's visit to China

Ecuadorian business community anticipates President Noboa's visit to China

A peace-themed exhibition was held in Tokyo's Chuo ward on Saturday, displaying historical accounts of Japan's aggression and atrocities during World War II and calling on Japanese society to face up to the country's wartime history.

The exhibition featured testimonies from former members of the country's notorious wartime Unit 731, information on Japan's use of chemical weapons during the war, and accounts of Japan's wartime atrocities presented through recitations, songs and other forms.

"We must never forget this history. I am already quite old myself. In order to pass this history on to the next generation, to tell them what Japan actually did during the war and about the crimes committed by Japan as the aggressor and perpetrator, I began conducting activities related to this about 25 years ago, and have since focused on passing this history on to the next generation," said the organizer of the exhibition Kazuo Fukuda.

Japanese participants at the expo criticized the government's attempts to revise the three non-nuclear principles, promote military expansion and Constitution revision.

"I didn't know much about these before. Today I saw a lot of information. Although the venue isn't large, it contains so much information. It was really painful to see all this. I hope [the Japanese government] won't so easily get involved in wars, including seeking to possess [nuclear] weapons. In the end, that will only bring suffering to the people. I have only one thing to say: I hope this will never happen again," a visitor said.

"We were all born after the war, so the generation that experienced and knew about that war is gradually diminishing. Under these circumstances, as Japanese people, we should seriously examine the crimes Japan committed as the aggressor," another participant said.

They also voiced clear opposition to visits by some Japanese politicians to the Yasukuni Shrine on Saturday.

"It's absolutely outrageous. Yasukuni Shrine is not a shrine at all. The so-called 'war spirits' were people who launched wars on their own initiative, and then they are 'enshrined' there. What does it mean to 'enshrine' them? When I think about these things, I can only feel angry. I believe Yasukuni Shrine should not exist at all," said a local resident after visiting the expo.

Japanese citizens call for remembrance of WWII aggression at Tokyo peace exhibition