Singapore And Costa Rica Sign FTA

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

07 April 2010

Costa Rica’s Minister of Foreign Trade, Marco Ruiz, and Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Trade & Industry and Education, Mr S Iswaran, have signed a free trade agreement (FTA) between their two countries in Singapore.

The FTA is a broad-based and comprehensive agreement, covering issues such as trade in goods, rules of origin, customs procedures, technical barriers to trade, competition policy, trade in services, investment, e-commerce, intellectual property rights and dispute settlement.

On entry into force of the agreement, Costa Rica will eliminate customs duties on 90.6% of its imports from Singapore, with the tariff on the remaining products to be eliminated over a period of 10 years (with a provision for acceleration, if subsequently agreed). On its part, Singapore will be granting immediate duty free access for all imports from Costa Rica upon effectiveness of the agreement.

In addition trade will be facilitated by enhancing cooperation and improving transparency in standards and conformance as well as customs procedures, and by the establishment of a framework for cooperation in a wide range of areas to promote economic and social development in both countries. Trade in services and investments flows between the countries will also be encouraged.

Singapore and Costa Rica announced the launch of negotiations for a bilateral FTA in December 2008. Formal FTA negotiations commenced in April 2009 and concluded after four rounds.

Costa Rica is Singapore’s 8th largest trading partner in Latin America, with trade in 2009 valued at almost SGD415m (USD300m), while Singapore is Costa Rica’s 2nd largest trading partner in South East Asia.

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