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New access for UK exporters to markets including beef, cheese and animal feed
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Greater
freedom for UK services professionals
to operate within market
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Further new joiners expected
as bloc strengthens global network
Costa Rica has
been granted accession to the Comprehensive and
Progressive Agreement for
Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
The Central American nation will
now formally join the UK as a member
of the trading bloc, which has
a combined GDP of £13 trillion, according
to 2025 data.
Once ratified, Costa Rica's accession
will benefit UK businesses from day
one. Exporters will able
to take advantage of duty-free
access (within a
quota) for goods like cheese (including
cheddar), confectionery and
animal feed. Exports of pork and biscuits will
become duty-free within five years, beef
within eight and cheese within 12.
We have opened these sectors while protecting our farmers, by not
increasing access to sensitive agricultural sectors including
beef, pork and chicken. We have also not offered any
greater market access to Costa Rica than to other CPTPP
members.
UK companies will also have legally guaranteed access
to bid for Costa Rican public procurement, allowing them to
bid for government contracts under CPTPP rules.
Costa Rica's accession to CPTPP strengthens the existing services
and investment relationship between the UK and
Costa Rica, giving UK businesses greater certainty, clear rules,
and improved access to a market where services and investment
already underpin the majority of bilateral
trade.
The services and investment liberalisation that
Costa Rica has agreed to as part of their accession to CPTPP
shows the value
of the bloc in promoting high-value,
open, and predictable services and investment trade flows between
CPTPP members.
Through accession to CPTPP, Costa Rica has agreed
to liberalise its professional services regime across
19 regulated professions. including in legal,
accounting, and engineering
services. This liberalisation goes far beyond any
of Costa Rica's previous trade agreements and provides
a more open and accessible market for UK professionals.
The UK will also benefit from Costa Rica's most
ambitious Temporary Entry offer to
date, including a new CPTPP-specific temporary entry route
offering previously unavailable categories of Business
Persons such as Contractual Service Suppliers, Independent
Professionals and Specialised Technicians, with
priority sectors secured for UK providers.
Costa Rica's accession will represent the first time
they have taken international obligations on State-Owned
Enterprises helping to protect British businesses from market
distortions.
For Financial Services, Costa Rica's accession to CPTPP provides
UK firms with legal certainty on their ability to provide
portfolio management and e-payment card services to Costa Rican
clients on a cross-border basis.
CPTPP is open for growth: we are negotiating with Uruguay and
planning to start discussions with Indonesia,
the Philippines and the UAE this year, if
possible. The fact that the CPTPP is growing and
has several other countries who want to join shows that there is
a strong appetite around the world for free and fair trade based
on a shared set of rules.
Additional Information:
Markets
The UK and the
Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific
Partnership (CPTPP) - GOV.UK
