Agri-Food Trade Policy
Negotiations to Modernize the Canada-Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement
On August 11, 2011, Canada and Costa Rica agreed to modernize the Canada-Costa Rica FTA (CCRFTA) and parallel agreements on environmental and labour cooperation. The current CCRFTA came into force on November 1, 2002.
The CCRFTA is a first generation agreement that focuses mainly on goods and does not include substantive provisions in areas such as cross-border trade in services, investment, and government procurement. Under the current CCRFTA, Canada liberalized all its agriculture lines with the exception of the over-access tariffs for beef and supply-managed dairy, poultry and egg products. Costa Rica still maintains custom duties and bilateral tariff rate quotas on certain agriculture and agri-food products of interest to Canada (e.g., pork), and excluded some agriculture products from any tariff reduction (e.g., beef, potatoes, onions).
In a modernized CCRFTA, the Agreement will reflect the comprehensive approach Canada has adopted in its most recent free trade agreements (FTAs) which will allow for Canada’s exporters to remain competitive with other competitors with whom Costa Rica has FTAs (e.g., United States).
Canadian agriculture and agri-food exports to Costa Rica were valued at $47 million in 2011 (mainly wheat, frozen french fries, pork, and malt). All agricultural imports from Costa Rica enter Canada duty free. In 2011, Canada’s imports of agricultural products from Costa Rica were valued at $248 million. Canada’s main imports from Costa Rica included pineapples, bananas, plantains, raw cane sugar, and non-roasted coffee.
Relevant Sites:
For more information, please contact:
Denis Landreville
Lead Negotiator (Regional Agreements)
Telephone: 613-773-1761
Fax: 613-773-1755
E-mail: denis.landreville@agr.gc.ca