Yesterday Mexico warned of a possible lawsuit against Costa Rica at the World Trade Organization (WTO) because it had closed its borders to avocado.
Even though the Mexican government reiterated their priority was dialogue, they announced they would decide by June 30 whether they would present an alert of the commercial dispute within the body.
Before taking a decision, Mexico demanded Costa Rica presented the technical reasons on which it relied to block the import of avocados in that country since May 5.
Costa Rica argued health protection against the possible entry of the sunspot disease, which is present in Mexico.
The announcement was made by Mexico’s head of Plant Health, Francisco Javier Trujillo, during a press conference.
The press briefing was also attended by Fernando Baeza, ambassador of Mexico in Costa Rica; Rubisel Velasquez, the Ministry of Economy, and Daniel Téliz, a specialist in diseases of the fruit.
The Ambassador of Mexico, Fernando Baeza, the director of Plant Health, Francisco Javier Trujillo, and the representative of the Ministry of Economy, Rubisel Velasquez, gave a press conference in which they said they were still waiting for Costa Rica to explain why it closed its borders to avocadoes since May 5.
Trujillo insisted that would wait until June 30 to receive explanations.
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The group of Mexican officials, headed by Trujillo, arrived on Wednesday afternoon and met with Costa Rican officials on Thursday. By noon, after a meeting between both sides, the director of Costa Rica's SFE, Francisco Dall'Anese, said the Mexican mission had not presented the requirements requested to reopen the market.
The requirements are the existence of a nursery certification program in Mexico, a control program for the viroid that causes the sunspot, and certification of disease-free areas in Mexico.
According Dall'Anese, if Mexico does not prove the absence of danger of bringing the fruit of Costa Rican territory, it will be impossible to reopen the domestic market.
Meanwhile, Trujillo said the State Phytosanitary Service (SFE) of Costa Rica took the measure without following the due process, as international rules state that the exporter must be informed of said measure 60 days before it closing the market.
He insisted several times that they have not yet received the technical report of the SFE. In that regard, he stressed, it’s not his country that must give explanations, but Costa Rica.
First the technical justification is made, then it is communicated to the exporting country, and then the measure to close the market is taken, said the Mexican director.
Despite the obvious difference in positions, Trujillo and Dall'Anese said they were open to dialogue and that all efforts were aimed at finding a solution before bringing the matter to international bodies.
However, the Aztec official declared: "I do not need to be in Costa Rica for my counterpart to make a wise decision."
The blockade on Mexican Hass avocado took relevance after a complaint made by importers. According to importers, Mexico accounts for 12,000 tons of the 15,000 tons of Hass avocadoes that Costa Rica consumes per year.
