Daily coverage from across the country, written for the expat community
Results for “regulations”Clear
SENAE rolled back the duty-free alcohol allowance to three liters per traveler starting May 4. Nearly 700,000 liters entered duty-free in 2024, and the agency says informal commerce was the real beneficiary.
President Noboa has declared 2026 'the year of construction,' with sector sales up 20.5%, real estate transactions up 17.8%, and $6.5 billion in purchase-sale promises on the books through 2028. Government incentives include preferential mortgages, IVA refunds for builders, and a new social housing law.
Ecuador's National Assembly passed a new mining and energy law 77-70 on February 26, replacing environmental licenses with simplified authorizations and allowing rock extraction in the Galapagos Islands. CONAIE and environmental groups are protesting the changes as a rollback of decades of conservation policy.
A new Human Rights Watch report accuses the Ecuadorian government of continuing oil extraction in Yasuní National Park despite a 2023 referendum and Constitutional Court order to stop. The case raises serious questions about the rule of law in Ecuador.
At a 54-nation Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington, the US formally recognized Ecuador's rare earth elements, copper, and gold deposits as strategically important — unlocking up to $10 billion in EXIM Bank financing and DFC investment guarantees for mining development.
The government has indefinitely suspended all mining activity in Napo and restricted processing plants in El Oro and Loja after finding heavy metals in the Amazon's Napo River and links between illegal mining operations and drug cartels.
