By Wendy Anders The Ministry of Finance (Hacienda) announced yesterday they would grant an exceptional one-time extension this year for tax filers in light of the complications many faced due to Hurricane Otto’s flooding in numerous parts of Costa Rica last week. Instead of November 30, the last day to file returns this year is Monday, December 5, giving filers an extra weekend to put togeth...

By Wendy Anders Spain is now Costa Rica’s entryway to Europe’s markets with the opening of new commercial headquarters inside the Costa Rican Embassy in Madrid, announced Procomer, Costa Rica’s foreign trade promotion agency, last week. Over the past five years, exports from Costa Rica to Spain have grown 120 percent, with 144 Costa Rican companies exporting 340 products to Spain last year, ...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica's balance of trade, 1995-2016; Central Bank data. In the first nine months of this year, Costa Rica's trade deficit fell to USD 3.86 billion from USD 4.11 billion in the same period last year, as exports grew 7.4 percent to USD 7.43 billion while imports increased 2.4 percent to USD 11.29 billion. Costa Rica's trade deficit decreased by 9.3 percent in September...

Quito, Nov. 18 — Visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping joined Ecuador's Rafael Correa on Friday for the inauguration of the Andean nation's largest hydroelectric dam, largely financed through a loan from China's Export-Import Bank. Ecuadorian and Chinese Presidents meet, source Facebook. A day after proclaiming a "comprehensive strategic association" between their two nations, the president...

By Wendy Anders The Costa Rican Chamber of Private Businesses (UCCAEP, in Spanish) announced yesterday they filed a case on Monday in the constitutional court denouncing what they describe as disproportional privileges granted to employees of the state-owned oil refinery, Recope. Earlier this year, Recope announced they were curtailing some long standing employee benefits, but UCCAEP members...

By Wendy Anders Hydroelectric plant in Costa Rica, photo for illustrative purposes. Costa Rica’s Cote Hydroelectric Plant near Arenal Volcano is the only plant in Costa Rica approved for carbon emission reduction sales through the World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund. Run by the National Power and Light Company (CNFL), the 6.8 MW Cote Hydroelectric Plant (CHP) offsets an estimated 9,500 to...

By Wendy Anders Indigenous peoples have disadvantages vis-a-vis governments and companies in consultations on projects that affect their communities, reported TeleSur TV this week. The United Nation Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli, on Wednesday recommended the Mexican government regulate and supervise the activities of mining companies that affect unprote...

Washington, DC, Nov. 9 — Massachusetts and Nevada endorsed the legalization of recreational cannabis use, as did California which, like Nebraska also opted to uphold the death penalty in polling conducted alongside the United States presidential elections. Map reveals minimum hourly wage needed to afford a 2-bedroom home in every U.S. state, source NLIHC. California supported the motion to ...

By Wendy Anders Gardasil, the controversial human papilloma virus vaccine that was tested in Costa Rica. F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG’s Central America and Caribbean subsidiary (Roche CAC) reported US$116 million in exports from January to October 2015, reported El Financiero (EF), Costa Rica’s business daily. As part of this growth, the company invested US$5.5 million last year in its distri...

HELENA, Ala., Oct. 31— One worker died Monday and at least five others were severely injured when a gas pipeline exploded in central Alabama, just south of Birmingham, authorities said. Blast at Alabama gas pipeline, source Facebook. A petroleum gas line owned by Colonial Pipeline exploded in Shelby County while a crew was performing maintenance, sending several workers to area hospitals. ...

By Wendy Anders Alejandra Mora is the head of the Costa Rican Women's Institute, dedicated to advancing and supporting women's status and involvement in society. Women’s participation in Costa Rica’s private sector is disproportionately low in regards to their educational level, reported the country’s business daily El Financiero recently. While 66 percent of Costa Rican university gradu...

By Wendy Anders OIJ police, photo for illustrative purposes. Yesterday morning, Costa Rican police carried out 13 simultaneous raids throughout the country after a 9-month investigation on a gang dedicated to stealing the content of containers arriving and leaving the country's ports. Among those arrested in connection with the group’s criminal activities are two police officials from Ma...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís views local seafood products on display at a 'buy local' CNP event. To strengthen local livestock producers and fisheries, the majority of which are micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, the Costa Rican government has asked all public institutions to purchase Costa Rican-raised products. Minister of Agriculture Luis Felipe A...

By Wendy Anders Crate & Barrel furniture. By mid-2017, shoppers in Costa Rica will have a new furniture and home decor option when Crate & Barrel, the popular U.S. store, opens at Avenida Escazú. The company is known for their contemporary designs and affordable prices. Monica Fonseca, manager of the Costa Rican locale, said the franchise is investing US$4 million in this firs...

Cienfuegos, Cuba, Nov. 1 — Cuba is about to become the country with the oldest population in Latin America and the ninth-oldest in the world by 2050. It faces the double challenge of boosting the birth rate and caring for senior citizens, who account for more than 20 percent of the island's 11.1 million people. Elder care center in Cuba, from Facebook. Cienfuegos, one of the provinces most ...

As tensions escalate at the site of a disputed pipeline close to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) has sent a delegation of human rights observers to monitor the response of law enforcement to protests by Indigenous communities. Sioux reservation in North Dakota, source Facebook. AIUSA also has sent a letter to the Morton Co...

Tourism leads the service exports in the second trimester of this year, registering an amount of 48.8% of the total service account, this consolidates this activity as the one that contributed the most in the recovery of the growth rhythm of the service exports in the first semester of 2016 in comparison to the same period of 2015. This information is given in the trimester Analysis about the e...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s Telecommunications Superintendency (Sutel) last week announced they would extend by 5 working days the public consultation period on proposed changes to the country's telecommunication markets. The extension was in response to pressure from the country’s Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoría de los Habitantes). However, the country’s ombudswoman, Montserrat Solano Carbo...

Bangkok, Oct 27 — Thai firms are preparing to export insects for human consumption to the European Union, which organized a conference in Bangkok this week to explain new regulations covering this category of food products. Fried silkworm salad, Facebook. Thailand is one the world's largest consumers of insects and has some 20,000 insect farms. Products made from these invertebrates are als...

By Wendy Anders Source: Cool Mountain, photo for illustrative purposes. A proposal to levy a temporary 2 percent tax on non-alcoholic beverages has been introduced by Christian Socialist Legislator Rafael Ortiz Fábrega. The funds from the tax would finance the purchase of expensive drugs by the Costa Rican Social Security’s (CCSS) public health-care system. The proposed initiative would ...

Montevideo, Oct 25 — Uruguay is a "stable and legally safe" country that constitutes a gateway to Mercosur for Chinese investments, an official who was on this month's Uruguayan government mission to the Asian country said on Tuesday. Antonio Carambula, executive director of the institute of investment and exports Uruguay XXI, told Radio Uruguay that his country "is an open door" for China to t...

By Wendy Anders New cars arrive in Costa Rica, under the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. (CAFTA). If you were looking to purchase a spanking new 2018 car early next year, it looks like you will have to wait until September due to new regulations established by the Costa Rican Internal Revenue Service, as reported in El Diario Extra, Costa Rica’s daily tabloid. Fernando Rodriguez, vice...

The Global Institute of Entrepreneurship and Development headquartered in Washington showed that Costa Rica is the country in Central America with more opportunities for entrepreneurship. Costa Rica’s strong points are in the Perception of Opportunities and Abilities; however the Institute indicated that the country is behind in process innovation, risk capital and absorption of technology. ...

Buttons made from tagua, and then dyed, Facebook. Shanghai, China, Oct. 12 – Tagua, the nut from a subtropical tree, also known as vegetable ivory because of its white color and hardness, is being promoted by trade body Pro Ecuador in collaboration with Hong Kong firm Yee Fung Hong in Shanghai this week. Tagua, also known as corozo, is increasingly used in the fashion world to substitute pl...

MORTON COUNTY, N.D., Oct. 10 -- Actress Shailene Woodley was arrested Monday for protesting against the construction of an oil pipeline in North Dakota. She was charged with criminal trespassing after her arrest, news reports said. The actress, who appeared in 2014's The Fault In Our Stars, was demonstrating peacefully with several others when she was arrested. She also livestreamed t...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica Colones currency A reform of the Costa Rican rental laws proposed in 2013 went into effect earlier this year, bringing relief to the country’s estimated 1/4 of a million renters who previously were charged up to 15 percent annual rent increases, reported ElMundo.Cr today. So, if your lease is up for renewal this month and your landlord plans to raise your rent,...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rican leaders ready for a trade mission next week to enhance trade relations with South Korea. Last year 71 Costa Rican companies exported 62 different products to South Korea, including radio and television parts, green coffee, medical prostheses, bananas, and pineapples, said the Foreign Ministry yesterday. Costa Rican officials will seek to expand market opportuni...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5  -- Apple enthusiasts quickly exhausted stock of a scented candle designed to smell like a new Mac computer. The "New Mac Candle" created by Twelve South, an online retailer specializing in Apple accessories, sold out from their online store within 24 hours. According to the product description, the $24 candle was Hand Poured in Charleston, SC using 100 percent Soy Wax and...

By Wendy Anders Source: Flickr Commons Last month, the Costa Rican Agency on Personal Data Protection (Prodhab) passed a resolution reaffirming the Costa Rican Treasury Department's right to access individual’s personal data, including name, home address, phone number, email, telecommunications plans, among other information. Mauricio Garro, director of Prodhab, on the agency's Facebook ...

By Wendy Anders With more than 40 per cent of its workforce engaged in informal labor, Costa Rica’s Labor Ministry was pleased to reach an agreement under the auspices of the International Labor Organization (ILO) with employers, workers, and other governmental representatives on bringing these workers into the country’s formal labor force. The Labor Ministry, the Social Security Agency (CCS...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Denmark's tax minister said the government will buy data leaked from Mossack Fonseca, the law firm involved in the Panama Papers scandal. Police officers stand guard next to a company list showing the Mossack Fonseca law firm outside their office in Panama City April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso Taxation Minister Karsten Lauritzen said an anonymous of...

By Wendy Anders Exports of goods from Costa Rica during the first eight months of 2016 grew by 2 per cent compared with the same period last year, reported Honduras’ daily Diario La Tribuna Costa Rica’s Foreign Trade Promotion Agency (PROCOMER) indicate that exports through August totaled US$6.634 million, 2 per cent more than the US$6.505.5 million accumulated over the same period in 2015. ...

Los Angeles (USA), Sept. 27 — More and more US companies are offering their workers health plans with the option of traveling to a Latin American country for medical treatment, as unveiled today during the "Latin American Health Tourism Summit" held in Los Angeles. “Five percent of US employers are offering their employees medical tourism plans. The growth in two years of these programs has bee...

US YAHOO  Washington, DC, Sept. 22 — Yahoo Inc. announced Thursday that the people behind a 2014 hack targeting the Internet firm accessed the account data of as many as 500 million users. "We have confirmed, based on a recent investigation, that a copy of certain user account information was stolen from our network in late 2014 by what we believe is a state-sponsored actor," Yahoo said in a s...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica Reventazon Hydroelectric Plant Costa Rican agencies are strengthening a biological corridor in southern Costa Rica critical to wildlife protection through increased forest-protection incentives for private landowners. The corridor is also known as the Jaguar Pass. In the wake of the recently inaugurated Reventazón Hydroelectric Project that may affect animals w...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14— Leonardo DiCaprio joins protest of Dakota Access pipeline. Industry leaders said moving forward with the Dakota Access pipeline is central to keeping the U.S. shale oil sector a strong component of the national economy. Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders participated in demonstrations in Washington, D.C., against the Dakota Access pipeline. "We cannot allow ...

Shanghai, China, Sept. 15 - The proposed inter-oceanic railroad linking South America's Atlantic coast with its Pacific shores via Brazil and Peru will cost around $60 billion, Peruvian Vice-President and Transport Minister Martin Vizcarra revealed Thursday. "The preliminary report says the corridor would exceed $60 billion; given these figures and other projects that could be more urgent, it h...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s Chamber of Restaurants (Cacore) has teamed up with Quatro, a legal and tax advising firm, to aid current and prospective restaurant owners better manage their businesses, and improve profitability and sustainability. Frequent changes in the economic environment, an oversupply of restaurants, and constant changes in legislation are the three main factors that can ...

By Wendy Anders Source: PRC FM The China-Latin America 10th Annual Business Summit is set to take place in China's northern Hebei Province in October, reported the China Xinhua News Network Corporation today. Chinese officials visiting Costa Rica say the activity is intended to boost economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, and with the Latin American region as a whole. ...

by Wendy Anders This week, the state-owned Banco Nacional de Costa Rica (BNCR) announced a new series of bank accounts that require fewer requisites to open. The three different types of accounts make banking in Costa Rica accessible for the first time to foreigners, youth, elderly, and others who may previously have found it difficult or impossible to supply the paperwork required to open a...