China's President In
Costa Rica For Free
Trade Talks
China's President Hu
Jintao is making his
first visit to Costa
Rica, after the country
became the first nation
in Central America to
recognize China, while
most of Central America
still grants diplomatic
recognition to Taiwan.
Hu arrived Sunday with
wife Liu Yongqing and a
delegation of about 100
Chinese businessmen and
Communist Party
officials.
Hu is scheduled to meet
today (Monday) with
Costa Rican President
Oscar Arias at Casa
Presidencial in Zapote
and sign 11 cooperation
agreements, from
building a joint oil
refinery to setting up a
Chinese language
institute.
"The free trade
agreement is very
important for China,
considering the
strategic importance of
Costa Rica for both the
Caribbean and Central
America," said Wang
Xiaoyuan, the Chinese
ambassador to Costa
Rica.
Costa Rica, a major
exporter of computer
components, has
dismissed fears of an
invasion of Chinese
products into the
country of some four
million under the free
trade deal, which could
be signed in 2010,
diplomats said.
The trade balance has
favored Costa Rica up
until now, with us$803
million dollars of
exports up to September
this year, compared with
us$671 million dollars
of Chinese imports.
China, however, deals in
a much more diverse
range of products.
Costa Rica would be the
third Latin American
country to negotiate a
free trade deal with
China, after Chile and
Peru, which has not yet
concluded its accord.
China has increased
diplomacy and investment
in the region in recent
years, with an eye on
natural resources and
developing markets for
manufactured goods and
even arms.
Costa Rica broke off
diplomatic ties with
Taiwan after more than
60 years of relations in
favour of China in
June 2007. China says
Taiwan is part of its
territory.
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 seen its
allies fall over the
years.
Following his visit to
Costa Rica, Hu will to
travel to Cuba late
today, before attending
an Asia-Pacific summit
in Peru on November 22.
The Chinese leader was
to promote Communist and
economic ties on his
second visit to the
communist island, days
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.
Current deals include
Chinese oil prospection
and extraction on and
off Cuba and two Cuban
eye hospitals in China
and a third under
construction.
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