From September 27 to 29 Costa Rica will be hosting an event which brings together representatives from companies and free zones in Latin America and other continents.
The Association of Free Zones of the Americas will be holding the XX Conference on Free Zones of the Americas, a space which will bring together representatives from the most important countries and free zones in Latin America, to discuss and exchange experiences and knowledge.
The country wants to take advantage of the tariff preferences it has to export shoes to the United States and the European Union so as to attract foreign investment to the sector and turn it into an export platform.
From a statement by Pro Nicaragua:
All footwear manufactured in Nicaragua has duty free access to the United States, the European Union and other important markets.
A market of one billion consumers has been opened up to products that are manufactured, processed, assembled or finished in Panamanian Free Trade Zones, without requirements for having value added locally.
Companies under the free zone regime in Panama are offering local and foreign companies the ability to export to China under the special conditions that govern them, with the aim of achieving the high production volumes required.
In Central America, the local contribution to free zone exports was $4.1 billion in 2011, or 26.3% of total exports.
Honduras had the highest local contribution in relative terms, 35.9%, followed by El Salvador with 28.9% , Nicaragua (28%), Costa Rica (26.1%), Guatemala (16.5%) and Panama (7,1%).
Within Latin America, the best positioned, according to an ECLAC report, was Uruguay, with a local contribution that account for 61.2% of total exports under this scheme.