Technical advisers from Costa Rica and Colombia could complete a final round of negotiations this week for a free trade agreement between the two countries.
“We have made progress in talks to achieve a positive balance between our offensive and defensive interests as we enter the final stage, and we are very close to completing the process,” Costa Rican Foreign Trade Minister Anabel González said.
González and Colombia’s minister of commerce, industry and tourism, Sergio Díaz-Granados, will meet on Wednesday in San José to finalize the negotiation process.
In four previous rounds of negotiation commerce officials made significant progress on market access for goods and on the agreement’s specific rules and regulations.
For Costa Rica, an agreement with Colombia would increase trade links, but also it would open the possibility of the country becoming a full member of the Pacific Alliance, an organization that groups Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, which represents nearly 36 percent of Latin America’s gross domestic product.
