Caricom-Costa Rica reach trade agreement

CARICOM and Costa Rica have concluded a free trade agreement which could be expanding into one between Caricom and Central America. This was disclosed yesterday by Trade Minister Ken Valley during a news conference at Riverside Plaza.

Valley told reporters that Caricom leaders ironed out minor details pertaining to the agreement at last week’s Caricom summit in St Lucia. Among the sticking points was Guyana’s objection to Trinidad and Tobago importing meat from Costa Rica. The Minister said meat imports from Costa Rica will continue “up until the end of 2005 or when Guyana can provide us with meat, beef in particular.” Valley stated that the agreement will be “clean-ed up” at a meeting between the Caricom Secretariat and the Costa Rican Government in Port-of-Spain next week and Caricom nations each will be given 14 days to respond. He expressed optimism that once this is done, Caricom chairman and Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson will sign the agreement “before year’s end.”

The Minister said TT now has favourable market access in Venezuela, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. “We pursue market access to obtain market space for manufacturers. We are doing quite well in all of those countries,” Valley stated. He further disclosed that El Salvador has suggested that the Caricom-Costa Rica free trade agreement be expanded into “a Central America-Caricom agreement. I’m sure that when I get to Miami later this week (for the FTAA Ministerial Meeting), I am sure we will be talking about that. The agreement provides for that,” Valley said.