THE government of Costa Rica has requested for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to hold dispute consultations with Panama due to its measures restricting and prohibiting Costa Rican food imports.

Panama had imposed restriction or prohibitions on the import of products such as strawberries, dairy products, bovine, pork, poultry and turkey meat products, fish food, pineapples and bananas from Costa Rica, the WTO said.

Costa Rica on Thursday, circulated a request for WTO dispute consultations and claimed the restrictions are inconsistent with provisions under the WTO's Agreement of Agriculture, the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

Costa Rica had first complained to the WTO in August 2020 about its trade friction with Panama.

Fresh pineapple exports were stopped on 20 January 2019 due to the alleged detection of the pink hibiscus mealybug pest (Maconellicoccus hirsutus), while bananas were prohibited on 25 October 2019 due to the need of a technical review of Costa Rica's phytosanitary measures after Panama declared a national alert on the risk of introduction of the fungus, Fusarium oxysporum.

On 20 February 2020, Panama banned strawberry imports from Costa Rica due to the alleged detection of above-normal residues of the highly toxic pesticide, oxamyl in the shipments.

Panama justified the dairy and meat products restrictions by saying the exporters had not completed procedures to apply for new permits after their previous ones expired on 30 June 2020.

"Panama took this step even though the affected Costa Rican establishments had requested the renewal of their respective sanitary approvals sufficiently in advance," Costa Rica said in its documents.

However, Panama stated that instead of renewing the previous approvals, it was necessary to conduct new evaluations and approval procedure "from scratch."

The request for consultations formally initiates a dispute in the WTO, allowing both parties to discuss the matter. However, it gives both parties 60 days to reach a consensus bilaterally, before it is sent to a WTO panel for adjudication.