The head of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Wednesday he would seek to end preferential trade access for Ecuadorean goods if the South American nation offers political asylum to fugitive former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the foreign relations panel, warned in a statement that accepting Snowden “would severely jeopardize” preferential trade access the United States provides to Ecuador under two programs that expire next month, reports Reuters.
“Our government will not reward countries for bad behaviour,” Menendez said.
Snowden was in hiding on Wednesday at an airport in Moscow awaiting a ruling on his request for asylum from the South American country’s leftist government. The United States wants him extradited to face charges that he stole and leaked details of secret U.S. government surveillance programs.
Menendez also called on Russia to stop sheltering Snowden and turn him
over to the United States.
The New Jersey Democrat, an influential voice on trade issues as leader of the foreign-relations panel, said he would lead the effort to prevent the renewal of Ecuador’s duty-free access to U.S. markets under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, which expires on July 31.
He also pledged to ensure there is no chance for renewal of the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, which also expires at the end of next month.
An OPEC nation, Ecuador exported $5.4 billion worth of oil and some other goods such as cut flowers and fruits and vegetables to the United States under the program in 2012.
Ecuador is currently the only recipient of trade benefits under the long-time Andean program, since Peru and Colombia have free trade pacts with the United States and Bolivia was suspended several years ago.
The broader GSP provides duty-free treatment for goods from 128 designated countries and territories.
