On Thursday, President Laura Chinchilla confirmed that an official visit to China, planned for July, is now postponed until further notice, according to the daily La Nación.
“The visit has not been canceled,” Chinchilla told La Nación. “It’s just that we have not been able to arrange a date. We hope it will occur this year.”
The trip to China was postponed two weeks after government authorities announced that the free trade agreement signed with the Asian economic power will not enter into effect this month as planned.
On June 13, Chinchilla signed Costa Rica’s Free Trade Agreement with China, the last step required to implement a deal that would allow 70 percent of all goods produced in the country to enter Chinese markets without tariffs (TT, June 3).
The day after, the government announced it would be making a visit to the country’s newest trading partner.
Former President Oscar Arias visited China on October 2007. He returned with $20 million in cash, $27 million for “technical and economic cooperation assigned to different projects,” and plans to construct an oil refinery in the Caribbean port town of Moín (TT, Oct. 26, 2007).
