Costa Rican Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruíz has announced that the country will begin examining the possibility of a free-trade agreement with China. The announcement comes on the heels of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Ruíz told wire service ACAN-EFE that the Foreign Trade Ministry (COMEX) will begin “the studies to initiate, in the near future, negotiations for a free-trade agreement” between Costa Rica and China.
A statement from COMEX also noted that the ministry will be forging ties with its counterpart in China, as will Costa Rica's Foreign Trade Promotion Office (PROCOMER).
Meanwhile, fallout from President Oscar Arias' announcement that Costa Rica would establish relations with China and sever relations with Taiwan after more than six decades of cooperation (TT, June 8) continues. According to ACAN-EFE, a paid advertisement in the local media by the Taiwanese Embassy in El Salvador criticized Arias for negotiating the change “in secret” and stated that the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize-winner “decided to toss aside the universal values of peace, liberty and human rights, mutually treasured by Taiwan and Costa Rica, and become the ally of communist, autocratic China.” |
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