SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) -China and El Salvador will begin free trade talks, the Chinese ambassador to the country and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said during an event in El Salvador Wednesday.
The two countries would work together to finalize the process “as soon as possible,” the Chinese embassy in El Salvador said in a statement.
The announcement came as El Salvador was receiving a donation of fertilizer and wheat flour from the Asian nation, which El Salvador said would “mitigate the impact of the worldwide economic crisis.”
On Monday, a Salvadoran court upheld a suspension of El Salvador’s free trade agreement with Taiwan, which China’s ambassador to El Salvador Ou Jianhong celebrated.
“We express our gratitude and appreciation for this ruling on the basis of the One China Principle,” she said at the time.
The One China Principle is the position held by China that both China and Taiwan are part of “one China”.
(Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Writing by Kylie Madry, Editing by Isabel Woodford and Lincoln Feast)
