China and Costa Rica reach consensus on free trade talks

On January 22, the Ministry of Commerce announced that the first round of negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between China and Costa Rica had been held on January 19-21 in San José, capital city of Costa Rica. Consensus have been reached on the negotiation framework for the FTA, the mode of tariff concession for the trade in goods, as well as the mode of negotiations for trade in services.

They also exchanged opinions on subjects such as rules of places of origin, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, dispute settlement, trade remedies, intellectual property rights and relevant cooperation.

In June 2007, China and Costa Rica officially established diplomatic relations. During Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Costa Rica in November 2008, President Hu and his Costa Rican counterpart Oscar Arias jointly announced that China and Costa Rica would officially initiate negotiations for a free trade agreement.

Costa Rica is the second largest trading partner of China in Central America, while China is Costa Rica's second largest trading partner. According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs of the PRC, bilateral trade volume between the two countries in 2007 was 2.87 billion USD, as much as 32 times over that in 2001. China's imports from Costa Rica in 2007 was 2.3 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 32 percent, while China's export to Costa Rica was 570 million USD, a year-on-year increase of 39 percent.

Source: People's Daily Online