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PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/282

TRADE POLICY REVIEW:

Solid growth — a need to open key services

Since its last trade policy review in 2001, Costa Rica has experienced solid economic growth while
continuing to modernize and simplify its generally liberal trade and investment regime. Applied tariffs have remained largely unchanged and the use of non-tariff trade barriers has been limited. Costa Rica has carried out an export promotion strategy which may well have encouraged investment but affected resource allocation. In this regard, reforms are planned in the free zone regime to bring it into line with WTO rules.

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In Services, the historical lack of competition in sectors such as insurance and telecommunications has hampered development and choice for consumers. Reforms are planned in these sectors and it would be important to bind them multilaterally to give greater predictability to the trade and investment regime, according to the report.

The report, along with a policy statement by the Government of Costa Rica, will be the basis for the third Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Costa Rica by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 7 and 9 May 2007.

The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government, will be the basis for the Trade Policy Review (TPR) by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO.

The following documents are available in MS Word format.

• Secretariat report
  > Contents and summary observations
  > Economic environment
  > Trade and investment regimes
  > Trade policies and practices by measure
  > Trade policies by sector
  > Appendix tables
    
• Government report
    

Note  back to top

Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements, in which member countries’ trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals. Significant developments that may have an impact on the global trading system are also monitored. For each review, two documents are prepared: a policy statement by the government of the member under review, and a detailed report written independently by the WTO Secretariat. These two documents are then discussed by the WTO’s full membership in the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB). These documents and the proceedings of the TPRB’s meetings are published shortly afterwards.

Print copies of previous TPR publications are available for sale from the WTO Secretariat, Centre William Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1211 Genève 21 and through the on-line bookshop.

The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States.

Schedule of forthcoming reviews  back to top

India: 23 and 25 May 2007
Central African Republic: 11 and 13 June 2007
Indonesia: 27 and 29 June 2007

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