Eighteen companies from T&T, Barbados, Suriname and Jamaica formed a Caricom delegation to Costa Rica last week and had the opportunity to talk about their companies to 400 exporters from the Central American country at the 17th Buyers Trade Mission.
According to the Caribbean Export Promotion Agency (CEDA) Costa Rica's annual economic growth averaged around 4.9 per cent in the early part of the 21st century, and is estimated to grow between 2015 into 2016. Growth has been particularly strong in the country, reflecting mostly the strong performance of investment and exports and its GDP per capita (PPP) is slightly above US$14,000.
Costa Rica has been successful in exporting to 157 countries, according to a statement from exporTT. General manager of Procomer, Pedro Beirut Prada, said the country has been successful in exporting because its companies have adopted a zero tolerance policy against "complacency" and "mediocrity."
The Caricom delegation attended the mission due to exporTT deepening its ties with Procomer, which is the export promotion agency in Costa Rica. Its duties include simplifying and facilitating export procedures.
Caricom member states can learn from Costa Rica's export success story about how to build a strong country brand, said ExporTT in a statement.
"ExporTT welcomes this opportunity to increase our international presence by mirroring this success story and creating the necessary linkages to boost foreign trade in T&T."
According to ExporTT: "The import/export situation between the two countries is skewed-approximately 2.5:1 in favour of Costa Rica."
The UK Trade and Investment Doing Business in Costa Rica Overview states that the barriers to doing business are: bureaucracy, corruption and lack of transparency, slow judicial system and decision-making processes, delays in customs, long standing fiscal deficit, some language barriers and unemployment is one of the highest in the region, at 7.9 per cent.
According to ExporTT, there is a partial scope agreement between T&T and Costa Rica.
Asked what can the Costa Rican market offer Caricom member states, in emailed responses, ExporTT said: "The trade picture between T&T & Costa Rica is not a balanced one. T&T imports more from Costa Rica than we export to them. The Costa Rican market is a huge regional market offering significant potential to T&T manufactures. We currently import raw materials from Costa Rica in the realm of cardboard boxes, food and beverage inputs and finished products."
But Caricom member countries were not the only ones in attendance, Panama, Chile, USA, El Salvador and Dominican Republic also attended. The total number of countries attending the mission was 36 countries including the Caricom member states.
ExporTT will host its second Inward Buyers Trade Mission between October 14 and 16, 2015 where a minimum of 25 buyers would be in T&T to attend business meetings, factory visits and a cocktail reception. Alexander Roman, Procomer's Caribbean regional director is expected to visit.
One of the main Costa Rican products on the shelves of T&T's retailers are plantain chips, which are sold here and across the region but are considered to be "products of Costa Rica" said ExporTT, even though they are locally distributed/packaged, in some instances.
About Procomer
About Procomer
Procomer employs 180 employees and is also responsible for designing and coordinating programmes relating to exports and investments, technical and financial support to the Ministry of Foreign Trade (COMEX), to manage special export regimes. It promotes and protects the commercial interests of the country abroad and is also responsible for centralisation and streamlining import and export procedures. It also follows up statistics on external trade.
The agency has trade promotion offices in:
North America: Canada, New York, Miami and Mexico,
South America: Chile, Peru
Asia: China and Dubai
Central America & Caribbean: Panama, Dominican Republic and T&T
Europe: Germany and London