Weekly Report - 24 June 2010 (WR-10-25)

COSTA RICA | Sugar. The US last week lifted its ban on tariff-free sugar imports from Costa Rica, imposed in January 2010 in light of Costa Rica's failure to implement reforms in line with the regional free trade agreement with the US (DR-Cafta). The lifting of the ban follows the approval by Costa Rica's congress in April of the last reform necessary to complete Cafta-DR - the toughening up of copyright laws to protect intellectual property rights. Costa Rica's sugar industry, which usually exports between 130,000 and 140,000 tonnes of sugar a year, put the losses from the US suspension at up to US$1m.