China, Costa Rica hold 6th round of FTA talks

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-02-09 11:52

SAN JOSE: China and Costa Rica held their sixth round of talks on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) here on Monday.

During the three-day meeting, the two sides will mainly discuss issues such as market access, the rule of origin, and intellectual property rights.

"We have agreed in more than 90 percent of issues we talked in last five rounds of negotiations. I think it is a substantial progress," said Costa Rican External Commerce Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz at the beginning of the talks.

Chinese Vice-Commerce Minister Yi Xiaozhun said at the negotiations that the two economies are complementary and have great potential for further economic and trade cooperation.

According to him, bilateral trade between the two nations reached $2.89 billion and $3.18 billion in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

Bilateral trade has been growing fast since the two nations established diplomatic relations in June 2007. Costa Rica is now one of China's important trade partners in Central America while China is the second largest trade partner of Costa Rica.