MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Costa Rica on brink of joining Pacific Alliance

Costa Rica already has FTAs with all 4 alliance members

Costa Rica may soon be joining the Pacific Alliance after the organization's Council of Ministers Thursday approved the Central American country's request to begin negotiations to join the regional bloc, it was reported.

Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard gave his Costa Rican colleague Arnoldo André Tinoco the group's formal invitation for President Rodrigo Alberto Chaves Robles to attend the next Summit to be held in Oaxaca next month.

The Pacific Alliance is a regional integration initiative that promotes the free circulation of goods, services, capital, and people among its member countries, with a commercial projection to the world, mainly to the Asia- Pacific region.

“Costa Rica has free trade agreements with the four current members, to which it directs approximately 7.5 percent of its exports,” San Jose's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“Foreign direct investment received from those countries represents approximately 7.7 percent of the total received in the period 2017-2021,” it added.

The Pacific Alliance was created in 2011 with the Lima Declaration. It seeks to create a space for greater trade, in addition to political and economic integration among Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Peru.

Trade exchange between Costa Rica and the four Pacific Alliance countries reached US$ 2.458 billion in 2021, representing 7.5% of the country's total foreign trade.