Costa Rica picked up the pace in negotiating the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Free Trade Association, between Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
Covered in the negotiations in Panama; areas of market access, sanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, customs, rules of origin, trade facilitation, trade defense, services, investment, intellectual property, institutional arrangements and dispute settlement.
“We have set ourselves ambitious timetable, to complete this process during the second half of the year with a view to strengthening our relationship with Europe and promote new opportunities for trade, investment and employment,” said the Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, Fernando Ocampo.
Ocampo added that Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein are a market with great purchasing power, with a GDP per capita of about U.S. $ 45,000.
The deputy ministers of Foreign Trade for Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, met Wednesday with European authorities to share the expectations of the Central American countries and determine next steps in the process.
With this agreement, Costa Rica seeks to complement the Association Agreement between Central America and the European Union, agreed to on 29 June in Honduras.