Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
Costa Rica is prepared to negotiate a free trade deal with China next year, the foreign trade minister said here Monday ahead of a visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao next week.
“The ministry now has enough criteria” to support negotiating a free trade deal with China, Marco Vinicio Ruiz told journalists here, adding that the decision could be announced next Monday to coincide with Hu’s presence, in the highest-level visit by a Chinese official to the country.
Ruiz dismissed fears from local businesses of an invasion of Chinese products on the tiny Costa Rican market under a free trade deal. (more…)
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Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
Costa Rica is finally ready to join the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
The country signed the accord in 2004 along with the rest of Central America, the United States and the Dominican Republic.
But its implementation has been stalled for four years by opposition lawmakers who didn’t want to open Costa Rica’s powerful state-run telecommunications and insurance industries to competition. Others felt the required intellectual-property laws dictating jail time for violators were too strict.
Costa Ricans voted for the trade deal in a national referendum a year ago, moving it forward. But then it became stalled again as congress squabbled over the enabling legislation dealing with 13 different aspects of the deal. (more…)
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