Costa Rica News – The control of monopolies will complicate the process for Costa Rica to join the OECD, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Another potential conflict is in financing to the INEC, the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses, by means of a 1.5% tax on insurance premiums.
Two bills to this end are being processed currently by the Legislative Assembly. It will be surprising to me if they really break up the large monopolies in Costa Rica that generate so much money for the government.
The Commission for the Promotion of Competition (Coprocom) obligates that periodic studies of monopolies be carried out.
These include fuels, vehicle inspections, and postal mail.
The idea is to justify whether or not the market needs these monopolies.
22 committees from different sectors are considered with regards to adding Costa Rica to the OECD.
The organization already approved six of them, those that relate to trade, health, agriculture, education, scientific and technological policy and labor and social affairs. Another six will likely be approved and six advanced in the first half of 2018. The biggest delays will be in competition and in statistics.
