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Volume 14,
Number 20 |
Also
in this section: Panama
- Costa Rica free trade pact
by the A.M. Costa Rica staff President Martín Torrijos Espino will be in San Jose on October 24 to sign documents that will bring into force a free trade treaty between his Panama and Costa Rica. The Asamblea Legislativa approved the agreement October 15. The agreement allows free access to about 92 per cent of the estimated 1,500 products and services offered by Costa Rica. Marco Vinicio Ruiz, the minister of Commercio Exterior, said the agreement guarantees Costa Ricans privileged access to the Panamanian market. Among these duty-free products are medicines, paints, fertilizer, pipes, tires, paper, plastic, beauty preparations, refrigerators and stoves, pipes, textiles, shoes, bacon, milk products, plants, flowers, fresh fruits, tea, flour, cereals, fruit juices, food seasonings and sauces, alcoholic drinks and cigarettes, according to the ministry. Other industrial products will have a period of from five to 11 years as the customs duties gradually diminish. Some agricultural products will have schedules for reduction of duties as long as 16 years. Coffee, rice, sugar, potatoes, onions and chicken thighs are subject to limited exclusions, as are pork, ham and palm oil. These products will have duty-free quotas, according to the Ministerio de Comercio Exterior. In 2007 Costa Rica imported about $224 million in goods from Panama and exported an estimated $327 million. Under terms of the agreement that was released more than a year ago, the Costa Rican telecommunications companies will be able to compete in Panama. In addition, firms from Panama will be able to offer telecommunication services in Costa Rica. As of now, the only Tico telecommunications company is the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad. But the free trade treaty with the United States and other Central American countries and the Dominican Republic opens the door to private firms. Each of the countries involved in the US free trade treaty agreed to negotiate separately with Panama to determine which goods and services could be imported or exported there, said the ministry. Costa Rica began the negotiations in April 2006. Insurance, sold in Costa Rica by the Instituto Nacional de Seguros, was not addressed in the Panama agreement, in part because Costa Rica is changing its rules to allow private companies. However, the countries have agreed to discuss the issue again after the treaty enters into force, according to the ministry. Also
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