Prices Likely to Rise

This should make Nards happy (sarcasm).

Excerpt from article.
"Ecuador has been struggling with a persistent trade deficit since 2009 and adopted various measures that seek to restrict imports. Last year the trade deficit was $727 million, down from $1.04 billion the year before."
"The new tariffs come just weeks after an attempt to impose tariffs of 7 and 21, respectively, on imports from Peru and Colombia. It backed down amid threats of retaliatory measures."
End of excerpt

Kind of a no win situation at the moment for Ecuador? 1.04 billion to 727 million in one year is nice progress, but have to be careful. Ecuador is not in that great of an economic position that it can afford to start pissing off it's trade partners with no consequences.

In addition there may be items with a 45% tariff that will become scarce or unavailable.
And some items could become available only on the black market.

mugtech wrote:

In addition there may be items with a 45% tariff that will become scarce or unavailable.
And some items could become available only on the black market.

I totally agree. At the highest tariff rates, legit importers may very well say, 'why bother?'

What kind of consumer items do you suppose will get hit with these tariffs? Booze is already at an outrageous high of taxation, tobacco close behind. So there's your usual sin taxes, already terrific.

Milk, bread, shoes?

I'm counting down for the introduction of 'special' gambling districts. Wait for it. They need that money now. Dust off those blackjack tables.

gardener1 wrote:

What kind of consumer items do you suppose will get hit with these tariffs? Booze is already at an outrageous high of taxation, tobacco close behind. So there's your usual sin taxes, already terrific.

Milk, bread, shoes?

I'm counting down for the introduction of 'special' gambling districts. Wait for it. They need that money now. Dust off those blackjack tables.

Shortly after I arrived in Quito, US peanut butter brands such as Jif and Peter Pan disappeared suddenly from the shelves at MegaMaxi, the victims of customs restrictions, as I recall it. Ecuadorian peanut butter is not all that great, I assure you.

I believe several other food product categories had similar things happen, but the peanut butter trauma remains in my memory.

My understanding is that Ecuador used to have several casinos, but they were shut down three or four years ago.

That's right, all of Ecuador's casinos closed in 2011 after a national referendum.

Quito had more than half a dozen casinos, including about five in Mariscal, one near QuiCentro and one at Hotel Auca here in Centro.

El Supremo engineered the casino closings, so it's unlikely anything will change before the end of his present term in early 2017.

After that, let the games begin??

cccmedia, Quito campaign chairman
Draft Nards Barley For Presidente 2017

cccmedia wrote:

El Supremo engineered the casino closings, so it's unlikely anything will change before the end of his present term in early 2017.

I wouldn't count on that, sometimes things can change very quickly right out of the blue. Especially in cases where there is a jackpot of desperately need money involved. I believe the 'special' casino district idea could be introduced this year in a very palatable form, finding some kind of loophole in the casino closure regulation, I'm betting they left themselves a way out. I think you may soon find out what that loophole is.

That legislation passed on a very narrow vote margin, and I don't know how exactly it was worded.

As you well know, money+politicians are very good at finding the loopholes.

gardener1 wrote:

cccmedia wrote:

El Supremo engineered the casino closings, so it's unlikely anything will change before the end of his present term in early 2017.

I wouldn't count on that, sometimes things can change very quickly right out of the blue. Especially in cases where there is a jackpot of desperately need money involved. I believe the 'special' casino district idea could be introduced this year in a very palatable form, finding some kind of loophole in the casino closure regulation, I'm betting they left themselves a way out. I think you may soon find out what that loophole is.

That legislation passed on a very narrow vote margin, and I don't know how exactly it was worded.

As you well know, money+politicians are very good at finding the loopholes.

I'm wondering if the masses were whipped into a frenzy as some sort of pretext for getting the "wrong" people (e.g., allies of political opponents, global non-Ecuadorian hotel and casino operators, etc.) out of the casino business only to bring the "right" people in down the road (e.g., local "friends" such as political allies and foreign "friends" from Macau, etc.)  The re-opening of casinos might have been a loan covenant the Chinese insisted on!

I don't think the locals were whipped into much of a frenzy. From what I've read the casino closure referendum was not very popular, the Ecuador government had to promise paid retraining for all casino employees, and it still only passed by two or three percent approval. It was a very close vote.

I've seen this happen before (Russia). Outlawed all the casinos (predominately run by Georgians and Chechens), then turned around in a short time and created special casino districts. Presumably to be run by Russians and not southern gangsters.

If you like amusing government corruption, there's Sochi. Sochi was a high end gambling town which was closed down by the Russian gambling legislation and not designated later as one of the special gambling districts which were created. That never made sense anyway but - there was a lot of Azeri/Turkish/etc. southern republic  money running the Sochi casinos and all the casino infrastructure in place.

Well well well. Last June Putin signed a special piece of legislation designating the $50 billion dollar Russian investment in the Sochi development for the Olympics - as a casino district. Who could have guessed?

Historical notes on the above:

Russia had already designated its new casino zones at the time of its decision to close existing casinos (decision:  2007, closures:  2009).  Source:  gamingzion.com

Thus, it appears that Ecuador is the only country that's had legal casinos in the past hundred years to impose a permanent, nationwide ban on them that is still in effect today.

The public referendum that led to closing the casinos in Ecuador was held in May of 2011.  Some casinos without proper licensing closed that year.  The last of the big casinos closed the night of March 16, 2012.  So as of next week, Ecuador will have been without casinos for exactly three years.

Casinos previously existed in Quito, Guayaquil and the coastal cities of Salinas and Machala.  According to a report at gamblingonlinemagazine.com, Cuenca had a small casino with two blackjack tables and 25 slot machines.

cccmedia in Quito

gardener1 wrote:

'm counting down for the introduction of 'special' gambling districts. Wait for it. They need that money now. Dust off those blackjack tables.

Just what cccmedia wanted to hear

In Russia after '09, they opened the first new casinos in remote districts, far from Moscow, that needed an economic boost.

That would be like putting casinos in Santo Domingo de los Colorados, Tena, Nueva Loja and Jipijapa.

cccmedia in Quito

cccmedia wrote:

In Russia after '09, they opened the first new casinos in remote districts, far from Moscow, that needed an economic boost.

That would be like putting casinos in Santo Domingo de los Colorados, Tena, Nueva Loja and Jipijapa.

cccmedia in Quito

Fortunately few see Russia as a roll model.

mugtech wrote:

cccmedia wrote:

In Russia after '09, they opened the first new casinos in remote districts, far from Moscow, that needed an economic boost.

That would be like putting casinos in Santo Domingo de los Colorados, Tena, Nueva Loja and Jipijapa.

cccmedia in Quito

Fortunately few see Russia as a roll model.

The same has often been done in the US -- New Jersey allowed gambling in Atlantic City because the town had economically collapsed; the same in Gary, Indiana.

Problem is, using casinos for economic development doesn't work.

Getting back to the new tariffs: This article in Cuenca HighLife says they seem likely to be overruled by the World Trade Organization and the Community of Andean Nations. And, in response to a comment above, they include an additional 10% on liquor.
http://cuencahighlife.com/new-import-ta … e-country/

BobH wrote:

Getting back to the new tariffs: This article in Cuenca HighLife says they seem likely to be overruled by the World Trade Organization and the Community of Andean Nations. And, in response to a comment above, they include an additional 10% on liquor.
http://cuencahighlife.com/new-import-ta … e-country/

So, when all is said and done, quite possibly all you'll have is a bunch of noise, where nothing much materializes. Maybe Correa is just trying to see what the public, and other countries will accept, and what they won't? Sounds fairly obvious not many are going to accept this, but worth the try I guess?

BobH wrote:

Shortly after I arrived in Quito, US peanut butter brands such as Jif and Peter Pan disappeared suddenly from the shelves at MegaMaxi, the victims of customs restrictions, as I recall it. Ecuadorian peanut butter is not all that great, I assure you.

I believe several other food product categories had similar things happen, but the peanut butter trauma remains in my memory.

Yes, I believe this may have been what happened to Corona. Supermaxi has not had it for about 3 months or so. Damn!! I like the stuff. It tastes better, to me, than the local stuff. I don't like strong beer.

There is a problem with this heavy taxation and that is that it has hurt some local vendors. Some, I have heard, have gone out of business. Correa should be supporting business growth not destroying it. On the other hand, maybe the businesses that are involved in importing don't amount to much in terms of the national profit. Anyway, protectionism is not fun for the public and for some businesses.