Ecuador nixes U.S. trade pact, 'blackmail' over Snowden

Ecuador said Thursday it is renouncing a trade pact up for renewal by the U.S. Congress because it had become a "new instrument of blackmail" involving the fate of an NSA leaker who has asked for political asylum from the South American country.

Edward Snowden, who was employed by Booz Allen Hamilton as a National Security Agency systems analyst in Hawaii, requested political asylum from Ecuador after fleeing to Hong Kong last month with top-secret documents and court orders on U.S. government surveillance operations.

In requesting asylum, Snowden said in a letter to Ecuador that it was "unlikely" that he would get a fair trial in U.S. courts.

He also noted he could face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted under the U.S. Espionage Act, Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said on Monday.

Snowden, 30, is believed to still be in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport where he landed on Sunday after leaving Hong Kong, possibly en route to Ecuador.

Russia has refused to extradite Snowden, whose U.S. passport has been revoked, but also appears reluctant to allow him to enter the country formally.

On Wednesday, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that if Ecuador grants Snowden asylum, "I will lead the effort to prevent the renewal of Ecuador's duty-free access under GSP and will also make sure there is no chance for renewal of the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act."

The pact, initially aimed at helping Andean countries in their fight against drugs, reduces tariffs on hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of trade in products such as cut flowers, artichokes and broccoli. Nearly half Ecuador's foreign trade depends on the U.S.

Under the terms of the pact, Ecuador exported $5.4 billion worth of oil to the USA last year.

Communications minister Fernando Alvarez told a news conference in the Ecuadoran capital Quito that the pact, which already faced an uphill battle for renewal, had become "a new instrument of blackmail."

He said his country of 15 million people "does not accept threats from anybody, and does not trade in principles, or submit to mercantile interests, as important as they may be."

"In consequence, Ecuador unilaterally and irrevocably renounces said preferences," he said.

Although Ecuadoran officials have said Snowden's asylum request could take weeks to process, WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said on Monday that Snowden was "fairly optimistic'' that Ecuador would grant the request.

In a pointed jab at Washington over Snowden's revelations on data-gathering by NSA, Alavarez said Ecuador offered $23 million per year to the United States to finance human rights training.

He said the money would be aimed at helping "avoid violations of privacy, torture and other actions that are denigrating to humanity."

Last year, Ecuador extended asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning on a sexual assault investigation.

Contributing: Girish Gupta, in Quito; Associated Press