Costa Rica’s largest opposition party said it will vote against entry into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), complicating the outlook for an accord the government has not yet decided to sign. National Liberation Party (PLN) faction leader Álvaro Ramírez Bogantes announced the position on behalf of the party’s legislative caucus, which holds 17 of the 57 seats in the Legislative Assembly.
Ramírez said Costa Rica does not lack consumers but rather support for its own producers and described the caucus’s position as firm. The CPTPP’s 12 members are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Vietnam. Together they account for roughly 15% of global GDP and about 600 million consumers.
Costa Rica already has trade agreements with six of those countries. The main gain from membership would be preferential access to the other six, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei. Karen Alfaro Jiménez, who chairs the Assembly’s Agriculture Committee, identified rice, coffee, palm oil, sugarcane, cattle and dairy as the most exposed sectors.
Deputies Salvador Padilla Villanueva and Ronald Campos Villegas pointed to the gap in production scale between Costa Rican farms and those in member countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia. The caucus cited projections attributed to the Ministry of Foreign Trade (Comex) of a 3.3% drop in dairy production and a 3.7% decline in agricultural employment.
Deputy Diana Murillo Murillo called the treaty harmful and said producers and business chambers had not been adequately consulted. The party also said 18 municipalities have declared their opposition. Farm groups have raised similar objections. The National Chamber of Agriculture and Agroindustry (CNAA) has questioned whether small producers can compete with larger, better-capitalized operations abroad.
Dairy producers have said milk costs 72 to 80 cents per kilogram to produce in Costa Rica (about 33 to 36 cents per pound), compared with 46 cents per kilogram (about 21 cents per pound) in New Zealand. The livestock corporation Corfoga has sought to have beef excluded from the deal.
Costa Rica formally requested to join the bloc in August 2022. The 12 members and Costa Rica announced the substantial conclusion of accession negotiations in May, but the accession protocol remains under legal review and has not been signed. President Laura Fernández said on Sept. 24 that she had not endorsed the agreement and would consult productive sectors before deciding. That meeting is scheduled for Friday, at Casa Presidencial, with free-trade-zone companies, agricultural producers and meat and dairy producers invited.
Fernández has said that if the analysis shows certain sectors would be harmed, the government would consider compensation mechanisms. If she signs the protocol, the text is expected to reach the Assembly in November. The PLN’s position carries weight because of how the vote may be counted. The ruling Pueblo Soberano party holds 31 seats, enough for a simple majority of 29 but short of the 38 votes, a two-thirds majority, required for some international agreements.
The Assembly’s Technical Services department will determine which threshold applies once the text is formally submitted. If 38 votes are needed, the government would have to secure at least seven of the nine opposition votes outside the PLN, a group that includes the Broad Front’s seven deputies.
Domestic objections also have limited room to change the deal itself. Costa Rica cannot alter terms already agreed with the 12 member states on its own, and any substantive change would require their consent. The debate comes as foreign investment rises and some major employers cut staff. Foreign direct investment grew 23.4% in the first half of the year, driven by free-trade zones, while several multinationals have announced layoffs.
Whether the accord reaches a vote at all now depends on the decision Fernández makes after Friday’s meeting with the areas that stand to gain or lose the most.
