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Government would be willing to allow a quota with tariff facilities. Volume is being traded
(CRHoy.com) In order to try to resolve the international conflict that the Ministry of Economy (MEIC) caused and try to prevent it from escaping to arbitration before the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Ministry of Foreign Trade (Comex) is negotiating with Brazil and Canada the possibility of granting them a fixed import quota for sugar into the country.
This means that the government is willing to allow a certain volume of imports of the product to the country with tariff benefits, with the exception that it will not be able to exceed the imposed cap. Any company that wants to bring the product from those countries and exceeds the limit allowed per year, will have to pay the high tariff imposed the MEIC, of 76%.
The negotiation is being led by Comex, after the Minister of Economy Victoria Hernández decided to go against the technical recommendations of an Investigating Authority and imposed the high tariff for an alleged “serious threat of involvement.
Because of this, both Canada as Brazil They went to the WTO Committee on Safeguards to ask for compensation; Brazil has already imposed a high tariff on several Costa Rican products in retaliation for the measure and Canada is on the verge of doing so.
The idea, as confirmed by the Minister of Comex Andrés Valenciano, is to reach an agreement to reverse any retaliation and prevent the issue from escalating to arbitration in the WTO, as happened with the avocado conflict.
The negotiation will have to reach an agreement on how much is the quota that would be allowed to import to both countries. According to Valenciano, the “traditional” thing is that it is a similar or average volume to that of recent years, which, according to figures from the MEIC resolution on sugar, could be around 8 thousand metric tons.
According to the figures, sugar imports have been growing in recent years. For the 2017-2017 season, the volume reached 10,800 metric tons, which, however, represented around 4% of all consumption, according to the Minister.
Juan Carlos Sandoval, manager of Maquila Lama, the company that began importing the product to the country, stated that the minimum that should be accepted in the quota is “What had been imported”.
“Our company relies on the bargaining power of our ministries so that this dispute does not drag on any longer. The image we are showing the world is not correct. It is clear that any volume negotiation has an impact on the price that we can offer to the consumer. The minimum would be the amount that was coming in before the Government adopted the measure and that, according to them, it was only a threat of harm. 12.000 tons per year, representing the 5% of national consumption ”, Sandoval said.
The head of the company claimed for “tremendous procedural errors”, which occurred in the decision.
“The measure was taken more by political criteria and pressure from Laica. Recall that the officials who were with the analysis for 18 months found no evidence and recommended closing the investigation without measures. The Minister of Economy deviates from technical criteria and we do not know where she got reasons and numbers to apply it, ”he added.
Valenciano told CRHoy that the issue will definitely remain for next year, but he is confident that a resolution will be reached since in other cases “other countries have been activated with much more force.”
The issue, in addition to having started the process of disputes at the international level, also faces a judicial process in the Contentious Administrative Court.
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