During the two last decades, Costa Rica’s trade policy has shifted from being one with a high level of protection into one that promotes openness and active trade negotiations internationally. By 1985, the US government granted  trade concessions to several countries in Latin America coming out of the debt crisis, namely the Caribbean Basin Initiative, a unilateral mechanism through which Costa Rica exports duty-free products to the US.

In 1990 Costa Rica joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and since then it has actively participated in multilateral negotiations concerning the elimination of tariffs, and at the same time, in numerous bilateral trade agreements with its most important trade partners. In 1994, the first Free Trade Agreement as such was negotiated and ratified with Mexico, and since then, Costa Rica started an aggressive venture in international markets with significant governmental support.

The government has long placed a high priority in investing in public education, which includes the university system as well as the technical and vocational training scheme. Since the elimination of the armed forces in 1949 many resources have been invested mostly in free education and health services for the population.  While a generous education expenditure ratio of more than 5% over GDP is currently maintained by law.

These efforts are reflected in Costa Rica by being one of the highest Human Development Indexes among developing nations (0.834), and one of the highest literacy rates of the Americas (95.6%).