According to the Chamber of Exporters of Costa Rica (CADEXCO), the fifth round of negotiations of the Free Trade Agreement between Central America and South Korea, which was held this week in Seoul, made satisfactory progress.
During the fifth round, chapters of rules of origin, intellectual property, telecommunications, and trade in services, investment, financial services and market access were negotiated. The latter requires more dialogue and Central America’s opinions were key to achieving a positive outcome in the next round.
We believe that Korea is a demanding market in general and in quality, it requires a strong administrative work of the treaty that could exploit the potentials generated by sanitary and phytosanitary permits,”
said Laura Bonilla, president of CADEXCO.
During this round, they mentioned the possibility of validating expired origin certificates. Market access was another aspect of negotiation, where Korea was presented a counteroffer to favor the closure of this issue at the next meeting to be held in Nicaragua.
Costa Rica exports recorded a total value of $ 51.1 million in 2015, a figure that is lower than in 2014, when exports amounted to $ 66.2 million.
The main products exported last year were transmitters and receivers for television, radio and the like; coffee gold; scrap iron or steel; prosthetics for medical use; banana tree; waste and scrap of aluminum; and pineapple. Regarding imports from Korea, these were valued at $ 391 million.
The Korean market has a population of 50 million. It’s a high-income country with high purchasing power with a $ 27,090 annual income per capita.