BEIJING - China signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with Costa Rica on Thursday aimed at boosting bilateral trade and investment between the two countries.

Costa Rica is the seventh nation and region with which China has signed an FTA, and is the first Latin American nation to sign a package of agreements including commodities, services and investment with China.

"We will step up efforts to start talks with other countries and hope to clinch more FTA deals this year," said Chen Deming, minister of commerce.

Under the FTA, China and Costa Rica will gradually reduce tariffs to zero on over 90 percent of the commodities for each other. In the services area, China and Costa Rica will open up seven and 45 sectors respectively. The FTA will come into force during the second half of this year.

"The two sides' industries are highly complementary to each other. China could increase seafood, agricultural products and handicrafts imports, while Costa Rica could buy more finished products from China," said Chen.

China-Costa Rica trade surged by 10.2 percent in 2009 and the nation's imports from the Latin American nation grew by 16.6 percent to $2.65 billion.

China Daily

(China Daily 04/09/2010 page13)