In a GOV.UK announcement, the UK government said Costa Rica has been granted accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. Once ratification is complete, Costa Rica will join the UK and other members of the bloc, which the government said had a combined GDP of about £13 trillion on 2025 figures. For trade policy, the decision matters because accession places Costa Rica inside the same rule set on goods, services, investment and procurement that already applies across CPTPP members. That gives UK firms a clearer legal basis for market access than a standard bilateral commercial arrangement.
The immediate commercial change is on goods market access. The government said UK exporters will be able to use duty-free access, in some cases within tariff quotas, for products including confectionery, animal feed and cheese lines such as cheddar from the point Costa Rica’s accession takes effect. Further tariff reductions are staged. According to the announcement, exports of pork and biscuits become duty-free within five years, beef within eight years and cheese within 12 years. The government also said it was not increasing Costa Rican access in sensitive UK agricultural sectors such as beef, pork and chicken, and was not offering Costa Rica more access than other CPTPP members.
Public procurement is another material change. Under CPTPP rules, UK businesses will have legally guaranteed access to bid for Costa Rican government contracts, rather than relying only on domestic purchasing rules or case-by-case treatment. That is particularly relevant for firms in sectors where state purchasing drives demand, including infrastructure, technology and specialist business services. For exporters, the gain is predictable treatment and a treaty-based route to compete for public work in Costa Rica.
The announcement places equal weight on services and investment. The UK government said Costa Rica’s accession strengthens an existing bilateral relationship in which services and investment already account for most UK-Costa Rica trade, while giving businesses greater certainty and clearer operating rules. A notable element is Costa Rica’s agreement to liberalise its professional services regime across 19 regulated professions, including legal, accounting and engineering services. The government said this goes beyond Costa Rica’s earlier trade agreements and should widen the range of professional work that UK firms and practitioners can undertake in the market.
The accession package also includes Costa Rica’s most ambitious temporary entry offer to date, according to the UK government. It creates a CPTPP-specific route covering categories that were previously unavailable, including Contractual Service Suppliers, Independent Professionals and Specialised Technicians. In practical terms, that should make it easier for UK providers to move staff or self-employed specialists into Costa Rica for time-limited commercial activity in the sectors covered by the agreement. For services exporters, mobility provisions often decide whether market access written into a treaty can be turned into paid work on the ground.
The government also highlighted two governance changes with wider policy value. First, Costa Rica will take on international obligations on state-owned enterprises for the first time, a step the UK says will help reduce the risk of market distortion for British businesses operating in the same market. Secondly, the financial services chapter gives UK firms legal certainty over their ability to provide portfolio management and e-payment card services to Costa Rican clients on a cross-border basis. For firms already active in the region, that provides a clearer compliance position and more certainty over service delivery.
The wider message from Westminster is that CPTPP remains open to further enlargement. In the same announcement, the UK government said negotiations are under way with Uruguay and that talks with Indonesia, the Philippines and the UAE are expected to start this year if possible. For businesses, the next step is ratification rather than immediate implementation. Once Costa Rica’s accession is formally approved and brought into force, UK exporters, services providers and investors will be able to use the new access commitments from day one under the CPTPP framework.