Costa Rican businessmen complain that because of export subsidies granted to sugar producers in India, there has been an artificial increase in production, causing prices to fall below costs.
Édgar Herrera, executive director of the Industrial Agricultural League of Sugarcane (Laica), explained to Elobservador.cr that "... These subsidies are greater than those allowed by the World Trade Organization, in the order of $10 billion annually.
Arguing that traditional taxi services and Uber should coexist simultaneously, the government of Costa Rica presented a proposal to regulate the collaborative transport service.
Uber, the computer platform for passenger transportation that has been operating in Costa Rica for more than three years, has faced, as in other markets, the opposition of local taxi drivers, who claim that they compete under unequal conditions.
In Costa Rica, the government has decided to establish an additional tariff of 11.67% on imports of brown rice, for purchases exceeding 6,367 tons.
With this new protectionist measure taken by the government, which will apply from September 21 to December 31 of this year, the current tariff will increase from 35% to 46.67%.
After the government argued that "...the increase in imports of brown rice, is generating an increase in national inventories of rice, resulting in repeated and growing surpluses in the domestic market," it proceeded to implement the protectionist measure called Special Agricultural Safeguard (SGE).
Like lemmings running towards a cliff, Costa Rica repeats the kind of actions that underscore the definition of a society incapable of stopping on the road to a terminal crisis.
The cost of not making decisions about the serious fiscal problem affecting Costa Rica "is incommensurable and has the potential to affect not only the economic but also the social and democratic order of the country."
This is the emphatic and clear position of the Comptroller General of the Republic of Costa Rica regarding the serious and risky situation in which the public finances of the country find themselves.Furthermore, as is well mentioned in the report "Fiscal and Budgetary Evolution I semester 2018", published recently by the institution, if decisions related to solving problems of short-term liquidity and modifying the structure of public expenditure to the medium and long term continue to be delayed, the cost to the country will be much more than just economic.
To be able to ship cargo throughout the region, Central American business leaders are exploring options for moving goods using alternative methods, such as shipping.
Representatives from the Costa Rican government and the union of exporters met to address the issue of blockades in Nicaragua and the logistical drawbacks that they have caused, since Costa Rica transports by land about five thousand containers to the other Central American countries every month. As a result of this meeting, both parties concluded that the most viable option is to use maritime transport.
In Costa Rica, the brand-new Alvarado administration faces the challenge of solving complex problems such as the growing fiscal deficit, deteriorated infrastructure and high production costs which are affecting the competitiveness of companies.
The Costa Rican - North American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) shared criteria of "...
Business leaders in Costa Rica disapprove of the management of outgoing President Luis Guillermo Solís, who in four years was not able to propose convincing solutions to serious problems such as the fiscal deficit.
From a statement issued by the UCCAEP:
April 26, 2018.The business sector, represented by the Costa Rican Union of Chambers and Associations of the Private Business Sector (UCCAEP), gives a score for the four years of President Luis Guillermo Solis's management of 4.9 out of 10.
According to Fitch Ratings, the fiscal outlook still faces considerable uncertainty in Costa Rica, despite the promise of President-elect Carlos Alvarado to carry out comprehensive reforms to reduce the deficit significantly.
In the view of the ratings agency, "... President-elect Carlos Alvarado's strategy for the future is not yet clear. Pressing the smaller 'fast track' bill might be politically easier, but it could reduce the urgency around additional reforms; Supporting a larger package could be more politically difficult."
Citizens are less than two months away from going to a ballotage to elect a new government without having discussed the country's priority issues, even though some of them require urgent attention and a deep national discussion in order to find a solution.
To address the fiscal disaster, the government is prioritizing current consumption by maintaining wages and inordinate current spending while cutting investments in education and infrastructure.
In the bill for the public budget for 2018, the Solis administration proposed reducing planned expenditure on infrastructure by 17%, and reduced the amount allocated to education from 7.62% of GDP to 7.4% of GDP, failing once more with the constitutional order to invest 8% of GDP in education.
After recognizing the serious liquidity problems faced, the government has announced it will borrow another $1 billion for a hearty lunch that others will pay for tomorrow.
The $1 billion that the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR) has been negotiating since May with the Latin American Reserve Fund (FLAR) to strengthen its reserves will arrive in October of this year, according to the BCCR authorities.
The controversial charge of $1,874 to certify commercial use of drones has been suspended for a period of six months while the Attorney General decides on its legality.
The suspension of the charge applies to all commercial users of drones for a period of six months.At the same time, the government has announced a differentiated regime for micro enterprises registered as such with the MEIC, meaning that they are exempted from the payment of $1,874 for certification.
The 2017 budget drawn up by the government of Costa Rica is the result of an arithmetic exercise, where the political will of the Solis administration has barely reduced maintenance and has increased privileges in the dominant state corporations.
EDITORIAL
Scandalous could be the best word to describe the magnitude of the increase of 12% which the Solis Rivera administration has made in the 2017 public budget.The 12% increase not only far exceeds the projected inflation for this year, but is disproportionate and far from reality, considering the serious and urgent fiscal problem facing the country.
A year after the announcement, the project to establish a marine cargo ferry between El Salvador and Costa Rica remains on paper.
Although it had been announced that the service would begin in late July 2016, it seems that the idea of a ferry transporting goods between the ports of Costa Rica and El Salvador at a base cost of $800 will not happen, at least for now.