QUITO, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador has formally begun its withdrawal from the Unified System for Regional Compensation, or SUCRE, a payment mechanism created by countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Peoples' Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) to facilitate trade among members without using the U.S. dollar.
The withdrawal was ordered Tuesday by President Daniel Noboa through an executive decree, after the National Assembly approved on June 9 the withdrawal from the treaty that established the system.
The decree provides for the full denunciation of the SUCRE Constitutive Treaty and assigns its implementation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility.
SUCRE was signed in October 2009 by several ALBA-TCP countries, including Ecuador, as a virtual unit of account designed to facilitate trade without relying on the U.S. currency.
The mechanism entered into force in 2010 under the government of then Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. It was promoted mainly by then Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as part of ALBA-TCP's economic integration strategy. ■
