Costa Rica has opened a foreign trade office in Panama, marking a new chapter of commerce between the two nations that awaits the signature of President Oscar Arias.

The free-trade agreement won its second and final approval, unanimously, in Costa Rica's Legislative Assembly on Tuesday night, and Arias is expected to sign the agreement sometime this week.

Panama is Costa Rica's top trading partner in Central America, according to the Foreign Trade Promotion Office (PROCOMER), which inaugurated its Panama branch yesterday.

Exports to Costa Rica's southern neighbor have increased 35.6 percent this year.

“What's more, surely the growing commercial dynamism between both countries will increase with the opening of this promotion office and the signing of the (free-trade) treaty,” PROCOMER said in a press release.

The treaty, already ratified by Panama's legislature, will allow 94 percent of Tico goods immediate, tariff-free access to the Panamanian market.