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Customs Documents for Exporting Italian Wine to Ecuador: A 2026 Operational Guide

July 20, 2026

Cargo ship sailing offshore at dusk: the Italy-Ecuador maritime route runs through the Panama Canal, with weekly departures toward Guayaquil Photo: zs Lin / Pexels — generic image, no reference to a specific carrier.

The practical problem: an attractive market with an unforgiving customs process

An Italian winery that receives an inquiry from an Ecuadorian importer is looking at a dollarized market with zero customs duty on EU-origin wine — but a documentary process that has little in common with shipments to Germany, the UK, or the US. The container leaves from Genoa or Livorno, crosses the Panama Canal, and reaches Guayaquil after a 30-35 day transit — a week longer if departure is from Central/Southern Italian or Adriatic ports rather than Tyrrhenian ones. If the paperwork isn't ready by then, the wine sits in the port's primary customs zone accruing storage costs by the day.

The critical issue is not the duty — zero for Italian wine — but the sequence of local compliance steps the Ecuadorian importer must complete before selling a single bottle: the Ecuapass customs declaration, ARCSA health registration, and SENAE tax stamps. Knowing these in advance, as an export manager, is what separates a smooth shipment from a container stuck in port.

The customs framework: Ecuapass, tax stamps, and health registration

All import-for-consumption of alcoholic beverages in Ecuador runs through the Ecuapass electronic system, managed by the Servicio Nacional de Aduana del Ecuador (SENAE): submission of the import customs declaration, payment of the tax assessment, inspection/verification of the goods, and release. This procedure is the local importer's responsibility, but the Italian winery must ensure the invoice and transport documents are consistent to avoid issues during the verification step.

The most specific — and most often underestimated — requirement concerns fiscal tax stamps (etiquetas fiscales): under SENAE Resolution SENAE-DGN-2015-0185-RE (amended by SENAE-SENAE-2019-0079-RE), non-reusable, electronically traceable tax stamps are mandatory for whisky, vodka, tequila, wine, and rum (beer excluded). After customs clearance, the importer is notified by email and must physically collect the stamps within two business days, apply them to the bottles, and confirm the application in Ecuapass before the product can be sold — if this step slips, the goods remain held in the primary customs zone with additional storage costs.

Upstream, for processed foods — the category under which Ecuador classifies alcoholic beverages — the Agencia Nacional de Regulación, Control y Vigilancia Sanitaria (ARCSA) requires a Registro Sanitario or, where applicable, a Certificado de Requerimiento o No de Registro Sanitario, obtainable only through the Ventanilla Única Ecuatoriana (VUE). The certificate costs USD 37.18, is valid for 60 months, and is issued within 15 business days if the file is complete (up to two amendments allowed before the application is voided). Required documentation typically includes a technical product sheet, qualitative/quantitative composition, a free-sale or health certificate from the country of origin, and the proposed label — which must already comply with Ecuadorian Spanish-language labeling rules.

Finally, to benefit from the preferential tariff treatment under the Ecuador-European Union trade agreement, Ecuador's national standards body INEN requires that the importer present a Certificado de circulación EUR.1 or an origin declaration on the invoice as proof of EU origin — without it, the duty benefit does not apply at customs.

Taxation: zero duty, ICE, and 15% VAT applied "in cascade"

EU-origin wine holds a structural competitive advantage: under the Ecuador-European Union multiparty trade agreement, in force since January 2017, it is exempt from customs duty on import — unlike, for example, US bourbon whiskey, which is dutiable since the US has no trade agreement with Ecuador. The benefit is conditional on presenting the EUR.1 certificate or an invoice origin declaration. A Primicias report notes that 2026 is the final year of the EU tariff phase-down schedule, with most European products reaching a definitive 0% in 2027 — wine, already benefiting from the exemption, is not among the remaining exceptions, which are reserved for a few sensitive agricultural products such as fresh potatoes.

The most sensitive layer is the ICE (Impuesto a los Consumos Especiales), revised every January by Ecuador's tax authority (Servicio de Rentas Internas, SRI) under the statutory inflation-adjustment mechanism: for 2026 the SRI published Resolution NAC-DGERCGC25-00000041, and outlets such as NMS Abogados and Expreso confirm an upward revision of the ICE rate for alcoholic beverages compared with 2025 (when the specific rate stood at USD 10.30 per liter of pure alcohol). The exact 2026 figure could not be verified from a direct primary source at the time of writing — before finalizing pricing, wineries should request the updated rate from their importer or local tax advisor rather than relying on superseded 2025 figures. ICE is a mixed-type tax: a specific rate per liter of pure alcohol plus an ad valorem component on the ex-factory/ex-customs price plus a minimum trade margin (typically 25%) or on the recommended retail price.

On top of duty and ICE, VAT at 15% applies, in effect since April 1, 2024 and confirmed for 2026 absent a new executive decree. The calculation is "cascading": ICE is applied to the tax base first, then VAT on the ICE-inclusive subtotal — getting this sequence wrong can cause the electronic tax receipt to be rejected by the SRI. The Ecuadorian importer is always the taxpayer responsible for settling duty (if any), ICE, and VAT through Ecuapass; the Italian winery has no direct tax obligations in Ecuador but must ensure the invoice correctly reflects CIF value and EU origin.

Labeling: two INEN regulations, no shortcuts

Wine labels for the Ecuadorian market must comply simultaneously with RTE INEN 022 (2R), which classifies alcoholic beverages as a "processed food," and RTE INEN 189, specific to whisky, wine, and spirits. Technical documentation must carry an official Spanish translation, also required for the ARCSA health registration file. The main display panel must show the Ecuadorian importer's name, alcohol content, net content, and product name, in clear, indelible characters — a positioning detail that often differs from EU labeling habits. A mandatory health warning under standard NTE INEN 1334-1 must also be reproduced in full, not paraphrased. There is no duty-free exemption applicable to wine: RTE INEN 189 applies to all alcoholic beverages sold in Ecuador.

Operational summary: documents, costs, and timelines

RequirementAuthorityCostIndicative timeline
ARCSA health registration / certificateARCSA (via VUE)USD 37.1815 business days; valid 60 months
Fiscal tax stamps (etiquetas fiscales)SENAEBorne by importerCollection within 2 business days of notice
EUR.1 certificate (EU zero-duty)Italian customs / INEN—Prepare before shipment
Sea transit Italy-GuayaquilShipping lines—30-35 days (Panama Canal)
VAT on imported wineSRI15% "cascading" on base + ICEApplied at customs

Sources: SENAE, ARCSA, INEN, SRI — links at the end of this article.

Want to see the real buyers for your wine?

Knowing the customs documents is the first step, but the question that matters for a winery is different: which importers are actually active in a market like Ecuador, and how do they operate in practice — Incoterms, payment terms, distribution channel. Wines Export works as an outsourced export manager for Italian wineries approaching markets such as the US, Germany, and the UK with a structured method, not isolated attempts.

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