China signed a free trade agreement on April 8 with Costa Rica—a country that only established diplomatic ties with the Asian giant in 2007. China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement that the pact was signed in Beijing by Commerce Minister Chen Deming and his Costa Rican counterpart Marco Ruiz. President-elect Laura Chinchilla, who takes over from Oscar Arias next month, will need support from opposition lawmakers to approve the deal and make Costa Rica the third Latin American nation to seal a trade agreement with the People’s Republic.
The pact will lift duties on 99% of Costa Rican exports to China. Chinese import tariffs on Costa Rican coffee will drop to zero in the next 10 years, the ministry added. Under the deal, 90% of Chinese imports, including electronics and appliances, will be exempt from tariffs. Last year, bilateral trade between China and Costa Rica reached $3.19 billion, up 10.2% on 2008.
Costa Rica is China’s ninth largest trading partner in Latin America, while China is the Central American nation’s second largest trade partner. China entered a free trade agreement with Peru last month, and two years ago signed one with Chile. (Alibaba.com, April 7; Xinhua, April 13, 2008)
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Not sure about this deal…
I live in Costa Rica and even if signing an FTA with China might produce a great growth in the Costarican economy it might also hugely damage a big part of the productive industry in the country with all the cheap imports from China competing in the market.
Not sure about your post…
In other words, you are stating the obvious in order to have an excuse to post a link to your website about surfing in Costa Rica. How many surfers do you think read World War 4 Report?
This is HUGE for Costa Rica!
I’ve decided to move my manufacturing company to Costa Rica because of this move. It will bring many jobs to CR because like most manufacturers (I make ozone generators) we get all of our electronic components from China. I can have dual citizenship and visit my home in the States whenever I want in the future. I also can set-up a bank in China and CR to facilitate purchases. Exporting my products to the US will be easy and I can keep my money from Obama in the future (CR won’t force me to pay corporate taxes for 10 yrs I’ve been told) Can’t beat that with a stick!