The ANT repeals eight articles and replaces the technical annex for license plates

The National Agency for Regulation and Control of Land Transport, Traffic and Road Safety (ANT) repealed eight articles of Title VI regarding vehicle identification plates and replaced the annex for plates for vehicles with four or more wheels through Resolution 021-DIR-2026-ANT. The act was approved by the agency’s Board of Directors in its Fourth Ordinary Session on August 26, 2026, in Quito, and was published in the Official Registry, Supplement No. 400, on Thursday, October 29, 2026, on page 9.

The reform affects Resolution 020-DIR-2025-ANT, dated September 5, 2025, which in turn reformed Title VI “Vehicle Identification Plates” of Resolution 008-DIR-2017-ANT, dated March 16, 2017. The direct precedent is report ASE-MBC-DEP-0002-2026, signed by the Executive Directorate advisor Milovan Javier Buenaño Coronel, who warned that Annex 4 contained proprietary-level specifications—exact Pantone formulas, millimeter holographic dimensions, and combined optical effects—which in practice described the product of one or very few global manufacturers.

That report concluded that the correct path was not to repeal Resolution 020, but rather a limited partial reform that would reclassify Annex 4 from binding to referential, migrate product specifications to procurement technical sheets, and allow for technical equivalents. The file includes the internal and external socialization of July 1, 2026, the public consultation of the project, the favorable opinion of the Legal Advisory Directorate (ANT-DAJ-2026-1491-M), and the response from the Ministry of Economic and Productive Development (MDEP-DGEIC-2026-0001-O), which ruled out the need for a Regulatory Impact Analysis.

What is repealed and what is replaced

• Articles 125, 126, 131, 134, 135, 136, 137, and 138 of Resolution 020-DIR-2025-ANT are repealed and rendered null and void.
• Annex 1 is replaced by Annex 1 “Plates for identification of vehicles with four or more wheels.”
• Annex 4 is replaced by Annex 4 “Technical Sheets,” which regulates semi-finished and finished sheets for four-wheeled vehicles and for motorcycles.
• The reformed article 132 refers the technical characteristics to those sheets, which may be modified by the Executive Director with a reasoned technical report and prior socialization before each procurement process.
• The four-wheel plate is dimensioned at 404 mm long by 154 mm high; the motorcycle plate, at 225 mm wide by 155 mm high.

Certificates and control in public procurement

The new article 133 requires, to validate retroreflective characteristics, one of four documents: a product certificate of conformity under the ISO 7591 standard issued according to Certification Scheme 5 of NTE INEN-ISO/IEC 17067 by a body accredited by the SAE; an equivalent certificate from a recognized or designated body; a first-party certificate according to NTE INEN-ISO/IEC 17050-1 supported by tests from a laboratory accredited under ISO/IEC 17025; or a certificate conforming to ISO 7591 or another equivalent standard validated by INEN.

The resolution also incorporates three general provisions into Resolution 020. The FOURTH obliges the contract administrator to verify, before signing the delivery-receipt act for aluminum sheets, that the certificates of conformity or test reports are present in the file. The FIFTH requires the Administrative Directorate to provide a warehouse inventory report, classified by type of service and status and with a projection of needs, signed by the head of the Plate Factory and the Warehouse Keeper. The SIXTH specifies that the effects of the act are limited to the expressly referred text.

Deadlines, responsible parties, and validity

• 180 days deadline for the Executive Director to promote the reform of the Organic Statute of Organizational Management by Processes, which must include the plate factory with its official name, structure, powers, and chain of responsibilities.
• Compliance entrusted to the Administrative Directorate and the Public Procurement Directorate of the organization.
• Notification, through the General Secretariat Directorate, to the national and provincial directorates and to the metropolitan and municipal Decentralized Autonomous Governments.
• Socialization and publication handled by the Social Communication Directorate; the regulation is effective from its approval by the Board, without prejudice to its publication in the Official Registry.

The reform redefines the technical standard by which plates are manufactured and acquired throughout the country: vehicle owners will rely on more flexible technical sheets and the homologation of international certificates, while the GADs and suppliers must adjust their procurement processes and production matrices to the new framework, with documentary control prior to each delivery of sheets.

Source: Official Registry, Supplement No. 400, October 29, 2026, section I, p. 9 (official reference: Resolution 021-DIR-2026-ANT).