China Launches Free
Trade Talks With Costa
Rica
By Sophie Nicholson
(AFP) – Chinese
President Hu Jintao
began a Latin America
tour with the launch of
free trade talks with
Costa Rica on Monday,
just over a year after
the country gave up six
decades of ties with
Taiwan.
Hu's stopover was the
highest-level visit by a
Chinese official to
Costa Rica and came as
China expands its
diplomacy and investment
on the whole continent,
with an eye on natural
resources and developing
markets for manufactured
goods and even weapons.
Hu arrived in San Jose
Sunday, from a G20
summit in Washington,
and headed Monday for
his second visit to
communist ally Cuba,
before attending an
Asia-Pacific summit in
Peru on November 22.
"The development of
cooperation and
friendship between China
and Costa Rica meets the
fundamental interests of
our people and will also
support different
sectors of our
societies," Hu said
after announcing the
free trade deal with
President Oscar Arias.
Talks were due to start
January 19, 2009, in San
Jose and end before
Arias leaves office in
May 2010.
Hu and Arias, who
visited China last year,
oversaw the signing of
11 cooperation deals,
from setting up a
Chinese language
institute to opening a
line of 40 million
dollars in credit from
China.
They agreed to set up a
joint venture including
China's National
Petroleum Corporation to
help modernize Costa
Rica's state-owned oil
refinery, with an
investment of up to 1.2
billion dollars.
Hu's symbolic visit made
the point that Central
America was no longer a
Taiwanese stronghold,
after Costa Rica became
the first country in the
region to establish
diplomatic ties with
China on June 1, 2007.
Both Taiwan -- a
democratic self-ruled
island that Beijing
considers part of its
territory awaiting
reunification -- and
China have been accused
of using so-called
"dollar diplomacy" to
get nations to ally with
them.
But Taiwan has lost
allies in recent years.
Part of China's
incentives for Costa
Rica's recognition came
from its enormous
foreign exchange
reserves with an offer
to buy 300 million
dollars in bonds. It
also donated more than
100 million dollars to
build a new national
stadium.
Costa Rica is only the
third Latin American
country to negotiate a
free trade deal with
China, after Chile and
Peru, which may conclude
its accord during Hu's
visit later this month.
A major exporter of
computer components,
Costa Rica has dismissed
fears of an invasion of
Chinese products into
the country as it seeks
to diversify ties amid
worldwide financial
woes.
Its main trade partner
is the United States.
Arias, a Nobel Peace
Prize winner, said the
two leaders had not
touched on China's
widely criticized human
rights record.
"I used the opportunity
to speak of things that
are important and urgent
for Costa Rica," Arias
said.
Hu headed to Cuba late
Monday, less than two
weeks before the arrival
of Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev.
China offered key
support to former Cuban
leader Fidel Castro when
Cuba fell into dire
economic straits after
the 1991 breakup of the
former Soviet Union,
forging a divide with
Russia.
China was Cuba's second
business partner, after
Venezuela, in 2007.
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