Costa Rica
Singapore and Costa Rica signed the Singapore-Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement on Tuesday.
China and Costa Rica held their sixth round of talks on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) here on Monday.
Costa Rica said on Monday it was on the verge of reaching a free trade deal with China as the Central American nation and the fast-growing Asian economy held talks.
The agreement eliminates tariffs, liberalises trade in services and gives new protection to investors.
While the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States technically has been in effect in Costa Rica for more than a year, one piece of it still languishes in the Legislative Assembly awaiting approval: changes to Costa RIca’s copyright rules.
It will be Costa Rica’s first with an Asian country
German investor Reinhard Unglaube, a resident of Costa Rica, has commenced arbitration against his host country over the latter’s refusal to grant the appropriate permits to extend his eco-tourist hotel complex in Playa Grande, Costa Rica.
China wants ties in the region, Costa Rica wants Chinese goods. But not everyone’s pleased.
On 6 October, two years after the fraud that ordered the adoption of the FTA with the US, there was a People’s Walk for Dignity in the Southern Zone of Costa Rica.
As deliberations over a possible free-trade agreement (FTA) between Costa Rica and China continue, opposition from some of Costa Rica’s leading business associations is growing stronger.
China and Costa Rica concluded the fourth round of negotiations in Beijing aimed at reaching a free trade agreement, according to the foreign trade ministry.
Both accords are expected to be finalized within the first half of 2010.
During the second round of free trade negotiations last week, China’s negotiating team discussed allowing 94 percent of Costa Rican goods to access the Chinese market, but left out key products such as coffee, sugar, beef, pork and chicken.
On April 1, Nicaragua withdrew from FTA talks with the EU in Honduras as it failed to gain support of other Central American countries on the fund proposal for regional development, in which it suggested the EU accounts for 90 percent and Central America 10 percent. Nicaragua accused Costa Rica of demanding "in the last moment" to review the proposal.
Costa Rica and China may seem to be an unlikely pairing; however, both governments have moved to deepen their ties and cement regional integration based on the pursuit of a free trade agreement, which was brought a step closer by the completion of the first round of negotiations on January 19.
Costa Rica and Singapore will begin negotiating a free trade agreement on April 20, the foreign trade ministry announced on Thursday.
The European Union (EU) and Central America started on Monday the sixth round of negotiations for a Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the commitment to speed up the process so that it can be signed in 2009.
China and Costa Rica on Monday began talks for a free trade treaty under which the Central American nation hopes to export meat, plants, fruit and coffee to the Asian giant
Costa Rica and Singapore on Tuesday announced their intent to start talks on a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
China and Costa Rica will launch free trade talks in January and hope to seal a deal by 2010, Chinese President Hu Jintao said Monday during his first visit to a Central American country.
