Saturday 25 October 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
Costa Rica, Panama Sign
Free Trade Deal
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Costa Rica, Panama Sign
Free Trade Deal
Costa Rican president,
Oscar Arias, and his
Panamanian counterpart,
Martís Torrijos, met
Friday to sign the
Tratado de Libre
Comercio (TLC) - free
trade agreement -
between both countries.
The meeting was held in
San José and signing the
document were also the
ministro de Comercio
(trade ministers) of
both countries, Costa
Rica's Marco Vinicio
Ruiz, and Panama's
Severo Souza Gómez.
With the signing of the
trade deal, 91% of Costa
Rican goods can now
enter Panama duty free.
Panama is Costa Rica's
fifth export
destination.
The trade deal is
expected to greatly
benefit small and medium
sized exporters as well
as conusmers on both
sides of the border,
with lower prices for
many products.
"Costa Rica is Panama's
major market in Central
America", said Torrijos,
who assures that the
trade deal will mean a
greater exchange of
goods between the two
countries as the two
countries have strong
commercial ties.
The trade deal frees up
of any tariffs 90% of
the goods now exchanged
between the two
countries and with the
rest of products
dropping duties in the
next 3 to 17 years.
Only a small number of
products are not
included in the free
trade deal, items like
rice, sugar, potatoes,
onions and coffee.
According to official
figures, trade between
the two countries was
us$551 million dollars,
60% or sus$327 million
of the total was of
Costa Rican exports and
the rest of Panamanian
goods.
Torrijos arrived in San
José early Friday
morning for the signing
ceremony at Casa
Presidencial and was
back in Panama by the
afternoon.
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