Singapore, Costa Rica ink FTA
Bernama | April 06, 2010
Singapore, Costa Rica Ink FTA
SINGAPORE, April 6 (Bernama) — Singapore and Costa Rica signed the Singapore-Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement (SCRFTA) here on Tuesday, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.
According to a statement by Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry, the SCRFTA is a broad-based and comprehensive agreement, covering issues such as trade in goods, rules of origin, customs procedures, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, and trade remedies.
Among others are government procurement, competition policy, trade in services, investment, electronic commerce, intellectual property rights, bilateral cooperation, transparency, institutional provisions and dispute settlement.
Under the agreement, Costa Rica will be eliminating customs duties for 90.6 percent of its tariff lines upon entry into force of the agreement with the tariff on the remaining products to be eliminated over a period of 10 years, with the possibility of accelerated tariff elimination.
On Singapore’s part, the city- state would be granting immediate duty free access for all imports from Costa Rica upon entry into force of the agreement.
Costa Rica is Singapore’s eighth largest trading partner in Latin America, with trade in 2009 valued at 413.7 million Singapore dollars (about US$296 million).
While Singapore is Costa Rica’s second largest trading partner in Southeast Asia and largest destination for Costa Rican intelligent cards and medical prosthesis in the region.
