Costa Rica begins the process to be part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership

( Spanish) – The Government of Costa Rica announced this Thursday that it was invited to begin the process to become part of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (Cptpp).

The Ministry of Foreign Trade (Comex) of the Central American country reported in a statement that this invitation gives Costa Rica the opportunity to enter with “preferential conditions the markets of countries with which it does not yet have trade agreements, such as Japan, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Brunei Darussalam and Vietnam.”

“It will also allow updating the disciplines that govern trade with countries with which there are already current agreements (Canada, Chile, Mexico, Peru, the United Kingdom and Singapore),” Comex explained in the statement.

Costa Rica requested in August 2022 to be part of the Trans-Pacific Agreement, and since then it held, according to the Ministry of Foreign Trade, 100 high-level meetings with different members of the trade bloc.

The Costa Rican Minister of Foreign Trade, Manuel Tovar, said in a message published on YouTube that this announcement is an extraordinary achievement for his country, which recognizes its extensive track record in fulfilling trade commitments.

The Cptpp is an economic integration agreement made up of 12 nations from America, Europe, Asia and Oceania, and which includes among its scope trade facilitation, public procurement, intellectual property, electronic commerce and investments, among others.

Chile, Mexico and Peru are the Latin American countries that currently make up the Cptpp.

With information from Djenane Villanueva.