VZCZCXYZ0004
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSJ #0954/01 3092216
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O R 052215Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0003
INFO RUEHSJ/AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE

UNCLAS SAN JOSE 000954 
 
SIPDIS 
STATE PASS TO OPIC 
STATE PASS TO USTR FOR DOLIVER AND AMALITO 
STATE PASS TO EXIMBANK FOR XCREQUE 
DEPT FOR WHA/CEN, WHA/EPSC:SGARRO, EEB/TTP/BT:RMANOGUE AND DGROUT 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON ETRD EINV PREL PGOV CS
SUBJECT: Costa Rica: National Trade Estimate Sections on SPS and 
Standards-Related Barriers 
 
REF: 09 STATE 105978 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
STANDARDS, TESTING, LABELING, AND CERTIFICATION 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
 
 
¶1.  Under current regulations, the Ministry of Health must test and 
register domestically produced or imported pharmaceuticals, feeds, 
chemicals, and cosmetics before they can be sold in Costa Rica.  As 
implemented, this system appears to be enforced more rigorously on 
imported goods than on domestically produced goods.  Regulations 
exist for imported goods, but older regulations do not always 
reflect current accepted international standards, including safety 
practices.  In general, the newer the regulation, the more likely 
it reflects current international standards. 
 
 
 
----------------------------------- 
 
SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES 
 
----------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶2.  Costa Rica also requires that all imported food products be 
certified as safe and allowed for sale in the country of origin in 
order to be registered.  Certificates are not available for all 
U.S. products, and traders have expressed concern regarding the 
length of time it takes to register a product under this process, 
which can take months.  The delays associated with fulfillment of 
these import requirements are burdensome and costly to U.S. 
exporters. 
 
 
 
¶3.  The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock enforces certain 
sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures that appear to be 
inconsistent with international standards, and the differences do 
not appear to be based on science (e.g., zero tolerance for 
salmonella on raw meat and poultry products). 
 
 
 
¶4.  Costa Rica ratified the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety in 
November 2006, but additional regulations are needed for Costa Rica 
to implement the Protocol.  To date, imports of U.S. products have 
not been affected and continue to be imported under previous 
conditions (i.e., only a phytosanitary import certificate is 
required). 
 
 
 
¶5.  Costa Rica has recognized the equivalence of the U.S. food 
safety and inspection system for beef, pork, and poultry, thereby 
eliminating the need for plant-by-plant inspections of U.S. 
producers. 
 
 
 
¶6.  In August 2008, Costa Rica fully opened its market to all U.S. 
beef and beef products in line with the World Organization for 
Animal Health (OIE) guidelines for "controlled risk" countries for 
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).  The OIE categorized the 
United States as "controlled risk" for BSE in May 2007.  Prior to 
August 2008, Costa Rica prohibited imports of U.S. bone-in beef 
from cattle of any age and some offals and variety meats.  Costa 
Rica based its import prohibition on the 2003 discovery of a BSE 
positive animal in the United States. 
 
 
 
¶7.  In 2008, Costa Rica and the other four Central American Parties 
to the U.S.-Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade 
Agreement (CAFTA-DR) notified the WTO of a set of microbiological 
criteria for all raw and processed food products imported into any 
of these countries.  The United States has some concerns with these 
criteria and in May 2008 submitted comments to the five countries. 
The Central American countries are currently evaluating possible 
amendments to the proposed criteria. 
 
 
¶8.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Foreign Agricultural 
Service (FAS), with FAS as lead agency, have worked with the 
CAFTA-DR countries to improve the capacity of their laboratories in 
the areas of pesticide detection and microbiology and thus 
encourage export of agricultural products to the U.S.  As a 
complement to this "Trade Capacity Building" program, FAS worked 
with the Borlaug Institute of International Agriculture, Texas A&M, 
to provide training to Central American officials in the 
surveillance and detection of salmonella in food products in 
October of 2009.  One Costa Rican scientist attended the training. 
 
 
 
¶9.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration opened an office in San 
Jose, Costa Rica in January 2009 to help improve bilateral and 
regional cooperation on food safety and SPS issues. 
 
 
 
--------- 
 
CITATIONS 
 
--------- 
 
 
 
¶10.  Paragraph One:  In this, the 2010 update of the NTE, we 
eliminated the sentence in the 2009 version of the NTE referring to 
ongoing negotiations by the five Central American parties to 
CAFTA-DR to develop common standards for several products, notably 
distilled spirits.  The FAS office in Costa Rica knows of no 
complaints from importing companies and we are not familiar with 
negotiations in this regard. 
 
 
 
¶11.  Paragraph Two:  The FAS and FDA offices in Costa Rica both 
confirm the content of this paragraph.  FDA states that it has 
issued "certificates of free sale" stating that a given product is 
sold freely in the USA.  FAS states that delays in registration are 
a common industry comment, but not to the point that anyone wants 
to make an official complaint. 
 
 
 
¶12.  Paragraph Three:  The zero tolerance for salmonella is a 
long-standing Costa Rican regulation, posted on the official 
website:  http://www.senasa.go.cr/decretosejecutivosvig entes.html. 
The argument is that foreign countries (i.e. the U.S.) have 
different antibiotic resistant strains that justify Costa Rica's 
"zero tolerance" position.  This Costa Rican reasoning is evidently 
consistent with the European position.  Nevertheless, US chicken is 
being successfully imported into Costa Rica, although not in large 
quantities.  We speculate that the testing regime is such that the 
"zero tolerance" criteria has not yet been a barrier to those 
imports. 
 
 
 
¶13.  Paragraph Four: The Cartagena Protocol requires that products 
from Genetically Modified Organisms ("GMO products") be identified 
as such.  In Costa Rica this requirement applies to grains. 
 
 
 
¶14.  Paragraph Seven: This statement remains unchanged from last 
year, as the decision by the Central American CAFTA-DR countries is 
still delayed, which FAS sees as positive for United States 
interest.  Among the criteria, the key factor is the "zero 
tolerance" for Salmonella. 
 
 
 
¶15.  Paragraph Eight: Despite this sustained effort on the part of 
the USG to influence the microbiology debate, particularly as it 
relates to salmonella, we believe that Costa Rica is unlikely to 
move from its "zero tolerance" position. 
 
 
 
------------------------------ 
 
 
DISTRIBUTION AND DOCUMENTATION 
 
------------------------------ 
 
 
 
¶16.  We will send a Word document via e-mail to the Office of the 
United States Trade Representative (USTR) as specified in reftel. 
The document will contain paragraphs one through nine above.  With 
that same e-mail we will include a background document on the 
Salmonella issue in Central America. 
WILSON