Costa Rica’s Chinchilla to visit China in July

A day after ratifying the Costa Rican Free Trade Agreement with China, the Casa Presidencia announced Tuesday that President Laura Chinchilla will be making a visit to the country’s newest trading partner in July.

Chinchilla’s scheduled trip to China comes four years after Costa Rica severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan to establish them with China (TT, June 8, 2007).

In October 2007, former President Oscar Arias visited China, coming back with $20 million in cash, $27 million for “technical and economic cooperation that will be assigned to different projects,” a plan to build a new National Stadium and plans to construct an oil refinery in the Caribbean port town of Moín (TT, Oct. 26, 2007). The $100 million National Stadium was inaugurated in March. Construction on the oil refinery is expected to begin this year.

China is already Costa Rica’s second biggest trading partner behind the United States. In Central America, Costa Rica is the only regional country to spur Taiwan for China.