Caribbean Countries to Ink FTA with Costa Rica

The fifteen member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will sign a free trade agreement with Costa Rica after negotiating efforts that stretched throughout most of 2002. The signing ceremony will take place as Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco and Jamaica’s Prime Minister Percival J. Patterson meet next March 9.

The Caribbean Community is Costa Rica’s fourth-largest trade partner with $69.8 million worth of exports and $16.7 million in imports in 2003.

During the three rounds of negotiations prior to cutting the final deal, Costa Rica gained access to 94 percent of CARICOM’s products.

Goods immediately favored by the FTA include ornamental plants, mechanically-boned poultry meat, cheeses, diary byproducts, children’s food, feed grains for animal, textiles, plastics and electronic components and appliances.

“With the signing of this free trade agreement, we now manage to strengthen a clear and solid regulatory framework of great importance for the Costa Rican exporting sector,” said Alberto Trejos, Costa Rica’s minister of foreign trade.

The Caribbean Community is made up of Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominique, Granada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Santa Lucia, San Kitts & Nevis, San Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago.