2.4.1. Costa Rica's Trade Policy For more than 20 years, the country has implemented an open trade and investment regime as a core strategy to boost economic growth and development. Close to 93% of export goods are covered by Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), investment promotion and protection arrangements (CINDE). Nowadays it has 13 FTAs and 14 Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs). Since 1963 Costa Rica has been part of different Central American Integration Agreements, and is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) since 1995 and a member of GATT since 24 November 1990 (PROCOMER). In 2002 the trade policy followed by the country became stronger with the FTA with Chile, and continued with eleven FTAs with (PROCOMER): • Dominican Republic and …show more content…
From 2001 to 2008 exports increased by 90% and imports by 134%. The financial crisis had a negative impact on international commerce and trade fell by 47% in 2009. The economy recovered until 2013 and exports rose by 33% and imports by 58%. Nevertheless, foreign trade contracted again in the last two years with a reduction of 11%. In terms of export destinations, since the 1980s Costa Rica has diversified its exports away from the United States and the rest of the World to Central America (Koehler-Geib and Clavijo 16). In terms of imports, it has also decreased its imports form the U.S., dropping from 51% in 1980 to 40% in 2015, while imports from the rest of the World and from Central America have increased. Still, the U.S. is the most important trade partner of Costa Rica. The top 10 export destinations of the country's products and the top 10 import origins are presented in the following table: Table 1: Costa Rica, Top 10 Export and Import Markets Exports Imports 1. United States 40% 1. United States 40% 2. Guatemala 6% 2. China 13% 3. Nicaragua 6% 3.Mexico