Correa's decision to offer the Manta Base to China, refusing to renew the lease to the United States while hypocritically seeking to renew preferential trade privileges under the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, or ATPDEA, ought to make the US reject the trade agreement with Quito.
"And so far, what we've tried to do is to level the playing field by getting the Chinese to act like us, " by invoking World Trade Organization free trade rules and pressuring Beijing to curtail currency manipulation.
Yet, as the US is distracted by a major economic crisis at home, Congress extended the Andean Trade Preference Act that would give a number of countries including Ecuador an exemption on tariffs on their products imported into the US. This preference has been given in exchange for cooperation to combat drug-trafficking.