LatinNews Daily - 9 August 2024

*Costa Rica’s Vice President Stephan Brunner has met with Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, during a visit to Japan where he sought backing for Japan’s cooperation regarding Costa Rica’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), comprising Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore, and Vietnam. Costa Rica’s President Rodrigo Chaves announced back in August 2022 that Costa Rica would seek to join the CPTPP which launched in March 2018 in Chile, and has been signed by 11 of the 12 countries that had negotiated the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) regional trade deal after the US opted to abandon it. Brunner was accompanied by Costa Rica’s ministers of foreign affairs (Arnoldo André); foreign trade (Manuel Tovar), and science, innovation, technology & telecommunication (Paula Bogantes). André announced the signing of an agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) a government agency, to expand cooperation in areas such as security, gender equality, and the blue and green economies, among other things. He also announced an agreement with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), a public financial institution and export credit agency, which focuses on cooperation regarding decarbonisation and sustainable economic development, including in sectors like the automotive industry, semiconductors, and digital technology.