Free Trade Deal With
Panama Ready
Following nine rounds of
talks between Costa
Rican and Panama,
finally both sides
agreed on the final
touches to ready for
signatures the free
trade deal between the
two countries.
The last round of
negotiations were
concluded last week in
Panama City, where the
Costa Rican ministro de
Comercio Exterior (Comex)
- foreing trade minister
- Marco Vinicio Ruiz,
headed the delegation
negotiating with his
Panamanian counterpart,
Alejandro Ferrer.
Both ministers said they
were happy with the deal
reached that dealt with
among other things,
items like trade of palm
oil, tomato sauce,
financial services and
telecommunications.
Business representatives
from both sides were
also involved in the
latest round of trade
talks, as they had done
in before.
According to statistics
by the Promotora de
Comercio Exterior (Procomer),
Costa Rica last year
exported to Panama
us$287 million dollars
in goods and imported
us$182 million dollars.
The main products of
trade to Panama are
medication,
insecticides, prepared
foods and electrical
cables.
One of the achievements
of the trade deal is the
free access of 88% of
Panamanian goods to
Costa Rica, which will
allow Panama to better
its participation in the
Costa Rican market, with
preferential treatment
of its beef, pork and
processed chicken
products, including
dairy, palm oil, fruit
and juices. |
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