Second round starts for The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Panama
The second round of negotiations for signing an EFTA with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA)
Topics such as technical barriers to trade, customs, rules of origin, trade facilitation, trade defense, services, investment, intellectual property, institutional provisions and dispute settlement, are all on the table for this round.
The first round of negotiation, in February, was a discussion on a conceptual level. “Costa Rica seeks to make this a short negotiation process and effective, and respect the business interests of each party. We have set an ambitious schedule to complete this process during the second half of the year, “said Fernando Ocampo, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade.
He added that the treaty with the European Free Trade Association to become the country trading partner of the leading industrial countries . Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein – members of the European Free Trade Association – representing a market with high purchasing power, with a GDP per capita of about $ 45,000.