Costa Rica is preparing its defence against Mexico's imminent complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) because of Costa Rica's ban on Hass avocados imports from Mexico that started on May 5, 2015.
The Costa Rican Minister of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), Luis Felipe Arauz, recognized that there would be an imminent process in the multilateral organization after the failed meeting he had with Jose Calzada, his Mexican colleague from Agriculture and Livestock, last Thursday in Mexico.
"We have little room to change this outcome. We are getting ready for an arbitration panel," Arauz stated.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Foreign Trade (Comex), Alexander Mora, said there was still some margin in technical trading, but acknowledged that next week he was going to the headquarters of the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland, to prepare the ground for this topic.
Comex must coordinate Costa Rica's defence.
Mora also stated that they estimated the process would cost about $600,000 dollars (about 325 million colones).
Nacion.com requested information from the Ministry of Economy and Commerce of Mexico through their Embassy in Costa Rica, but we had received no answer by press time. This entity defines whether the complaint is filed or not.
According to Fernando Ocampo, a former deputy minister of Foreign Trade (Comex), this would be the first time that Costa Rica faced an action at the WTO.
Ocampo agreed with the president of the Chamber of Exporters and Importers of Perishable Producers, Randall Benavides, who stated that the forthcoming WTO complaint regarding avocado trade issues was expected.
The conflict with Mexico began on May 5, 2015, when the State Phytosanitary Service (SFE) suspended the issuance of permits to import Hass avocado. According to the SFE, the measure was taken to protect the country against the sunblotch disease.
Resources
Mora also said that he had already told the President, Luis Guillermo Solis, that Comex had no resources to finance Costa Rica's defence.
He said he had asked Solis for each entity involved with finance costs. Therefore, the SFE shall provide financing through the reserve funds it manages, Mora said.
He said that, once the complaint was filed, there would be a two months consultations period between the parties where they could reach a negotiated solution.
Otherwise, the WTO would create a panel of experts, with three or five arbitrators, according to the degree of complexity of the issue, within 45 days.
Then, the experts would have 9 months to investigate and make a decision. That ruling can then be appealed within three months. Thus, a procedure can last between 13 and 16 months before it is solved.
The winning party can request commercial compensation, usually by closing its market to important products of the other country.
However, Arauz stated, he had reached an agreement with Calzada so that this case does not transcend to other areas of commerce. "We expect this won't affect other trade items nor the good bilateral relations between our countries," he said.
Source: nacion.com
