ECUADOR

On May 9, the National Assembly ended a session in which it reviewed the partial veto from the Executive of the Organic Code of Commerce (see bill). The Assembly accepted 117 of the Executive’s objections, most of them formal modifications, and ratified a further 17 proposed articles of legislation, including, controversially, article 80 on securities trading. The bill’s text has now been passed to the Official Registry for immediate enactment. Meanwhile Minister of Foreign Trade, Pablo Campana, announced that the draft bill  “Productive Development 2” is already in the hands of the Presidential Secretariat, and looks set to be passed to the National Assembly before the end of May.

In regard to the Organic Code of Commerce bill, the Assembly accepted a request from the Economic Regime Committee along with 117 objections submitted by the Executive. All of the latter related to issues of wording and were aimed at ensuring the correct application of the bill’s provisions. The Assembly insisted, however, on retaining 17 of the bill’s original articles, the most contentious being article 80 on securities trading. Two separate votes were held to ratify the retention of the two articles.

Pablo Campana, Minister of Foreign Trade, announced that the draft bill on promoting productivity – “Productive Development 2” – had been sent to the Secretariat of the Presidency for its final analysis. This agency will thus evaluate the content of the bill before passing it on to the National Assembly. According to Campana, the initiative will reform “23 legal bodies”, including reforms to the Market and Securities Law and the Bankruptcy Law.