{"id":3697,"date":"2017-05-29T18:31:55","date_gmt":"2017-05-29T17:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.nl\/blog-uk\/?p=3697"},"modified":"2017-05-29T18:31:55","modified_gmt":"2017-05-29T17:31:55","slug":"exporting-to-costa-rica-everything-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.nl\/blog-uk\/exporting-to-costa-rica-everything-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Exporting to Costa Rica &#8211; everything you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Costa Rica is one of Latin America&#8217;s most stable countries &#8211; its population of just under 5 million has an open economy that is focussed on agriculture, industrial production, services, and tourism.<\/p>\n<p>There are many well known UK businesses that\u00a0are now established over there, including\u00a0\u00a0AstraZeneca, Glaxosmithkline, and Land Rover.<\/p>\n<p>So if you&#8217;re planning on exporting to Costa Rica, here&#8217;s everything you need to know&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Exports of goods from the UK to Costa Rica has reached \u00a363 million, and the top exports are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pharmaceuticals<\/li>\n<li>Chemicals<\/li>\n<li>Vehicles and spare parts<\/li>\n<li>Whisky<\/li>\n<li>Machinery<\/li>\n<li>Petroleum products<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you&#8217;re in the service sector, there are opportunities in the following areas:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Contact centres<\/li>\n<li>Shared and back office services<\/li>\n<li>Digital technologies<\/li>\n<li>Design and engineering<\/li>\n<li>Regional hubs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The pros and cons of exporting to\u00a0Costa Rica<\/h2>\n<p>There are a number of good reasons to export to Costa Rica, and the strengths of its market include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Open and well-diversified economy<\/li>\n<li>English widely spoken<\/li>\n<li>Gross Domestic Product (<abbr title=\"Gross Domestic Product\">GDP<\/abbr>) growth since 1991<\/li>\n<li>Highly educated and efficient workforce, with a high literacy rate<\/li>\n<li>Politically stable, with more than 120 years of solid democracy<\/li>\n<li>Safest country in Latin America according to the 2014 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fticonsulting.co.uk\/global2\/critical-thinking\/reports\/2014-latin-america-security-index.aspx\" rel=\"external\">Latin America security index<\/a><\/li>\n<li>International standards for Intellectual Property (IP) protection<\/li>\n<li>An excellent location for business at the heart of the Americas<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As you might expect though, exporting to any Latin American country is\u00a0not without its problems though, so watch out for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bureaucracy<\/li>\n<li>Corruption and lack of transparency<\/li>\n<li>Slow judiciary system and decision-making processes<\/li>\n<li>Delays in customs<\/li>\n<li>Long standing fiscal deficit<\/li>\n<li>Some language barriers<\/li>\n<li>Unemployment is one of the highest in the region, at 7.9%<\/li>\n<li>Poor infrastructure<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you\u2019re doing business in Costa Rica, you\u2019ll need a reliable and cost-effective conference call provider to help keep in touch when travelling isn\u2019t an option. Here\u2019s\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.nl\/blog-uk\/how-to-set-up-a-conference-call-between-costa-rica-and-uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How to set up a conference call between the UK and Costa Rica<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>And remember, you can now screen share and video conference, using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.nl\/blog-uk\/now-can-screen-share-conference-calls\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Crankwheel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Tax and customs<\/h2>\n<h3>Tax<\/h3>\n<p>Costa Rica offers some of South America&#8217;s most attractive tax incentives. The Free Trade Zone (FTZ) Regime &#8211; a set of incentives and benefits granted by the country to companies making new investments and complying with local requirements and obligations &#8211;\u00a0provides 100% tax exemption, with an option for either a 10-year period or no expiration period.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve a manufacturing project with an investment of \u00a36.5 million or more, you can 100% exemption from income tax for eight years, followed by a further four years at 50%.<\/p>\n<p>Other taxes include Sales Tax, set at 13%, and Selective Consumption Tax, which can be anywhere between 5% and 75%.<\/p>\n<h3>Customs<\/h3>\n<p>Customs procedures in Costa Rica are carried out through an agent responsible for presenting declaration forms to the Customs Office, and when importing, you must provide the following\u00a0documentation:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Commercial invoices<\/li>\n<li>Bills of lading<\/li>\n<li>Insurance agreements (if any)<\/li>\n<li>Technical specifications<\/li>\n<li>Documents issued abroad must be authenticated by the corresponding Costa Rican Consular authority.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/conference-call\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1777 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.nl\/blog-uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/conference-call-banner.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"118\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Costa Rica is one of Latin America&#8217;s most stable countries &#8211; its population of just under 5 million has an open economy that is focussed on agriculture, industrial production, services,<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.nl\/blog-uk\/exporting-to-costa-rica-everything-you-need-to-know\/\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Exporting to Costa Rica &#8211; everything you need to know<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,2,7],"tags":[23,29,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.nl\/blog-uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.nl\/blog-uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.nl\/blog-uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.nl\/blog-uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.nl\/blog-uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3697"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.nl\/blog-uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3704,"href":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.nl\/blog-uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3697\/revisions\/3704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.nl\/blog-uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.nl\/blog-uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.nl\/blog-uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}