LatinNews Daily - 19 April 2024

*The president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, and his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, have announced the signing of a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA). The announcement was made during a visit to Costa Rica by a high-level UAE delegation headed up by the foreign trade minister, Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, who met President Chaves. According to a report by the state Emirates News Agency (WAM) in English, President Chaves and Al Zeyoudi said the agreement would “significantly enhance bilateral trade and mutual investments between the two countries by eliminating tariffs, reducing trade barriers, promoting the exchange of goods, capital, and ideas, and encouraging cooperation in the private sector”. According to WAM, bilateral non-oil trade reached US$65m in 2023. It adds that the CEPA with Costa Rica would give the UAE “significant market access, with 98% of tariff lines duty-free or with reduced tariffs, including aluminium, polyethylene, heavy machinery, ceramics, glass, copper, and related products, iron and steel and related products, and cement”. As well as the deal with Costa Rica, the UAE has also announced the signing of a CEPA between the UAE and Colombia by Al Zeyoudi and Colombia’s minister of trade, industry, & tourism, Germán Umaña. WAM highlights that in recent years, the two nations have “signed numerous cooperation agreements, which covered aviation, renewable energy, the environment, hydrogen, travel, free zones, and artificial intelligence”. According to WAM, bilateral non-oil trade was up 43% to reach an all-time high of US$53.1m in 2023 – more than double the total achieved in 2021.