Abstract
The Republic of Costa Rica and the People’s Republic of China resumed diplomatic relations in 2007. These relations, beyond the possible commercial benefits, are of strong political interest from China in order to have a presence in the Latin American region, and in this case, particularly in Central America and the Caribbean. However, one of the most tangible expressions of cooperation between the two countries has been the commercial dimension.
Although Costa Rica and China have had trade relations since the early 1990s, it is since the incorporation of China to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, when trade exchanges experienced constant growth, with a consolidation in 2008, when the negotiations for a free trade agreement and investment protection agreement between the two countries were launched. The FTA entered into force on August 1st, 2011, while the bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection agreement was approved by Costa Rica in March 2016. This gradual approach has led China to become the second trade partner of Costa Rica after the United States.
Therefore, this chapter seeks to evaluate the business impacts that the FTA signed with China have represented for the Costa Rican economy, as well as to reflect on the commercial opportunities that Costa Rica can promote with the existence of this commercial instrument. This will be achieved by a quantitative analysis which will allow characterizing and evaluating the trade relations between the two economies.
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Fonseca, H., Mora, R., Hernández, R. (2022). Costa Rica-China Free Trade Agreement: Analysis of the Results from the First 10 Years of the Agreement. In: López, D., Song, G., Bórquez, A., Muñoz, F. (eds) China’s Trade Policy in Latin America. Contributions to International Relations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98664-3_7
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