Hola señors and señoritas! Today was our last day in San Jose. We were able to go and visit two businesses. They were both located in free trade areas located just outside of San Jose. The first business that we went visit was Boston Scientific. We were greeted by their HR person named Bernard. We were then all brought into a large meeting to hear a presentation about the chain of their Costa Rica plant. This plant was opened about ten years ago and has grown significantly. They produce many products that are used in the United States and around the globe. We were also able to tour their facility. It was definitely one of the nicest businesses that I have seen. It was also very cool to see all of their company objective, mission statement, and other business principles presented in posters on walls across the facility. This tour was probably one of my favorite parts of this whole trip. After this tour, we headed to a souvenir shop that was in this area. Most of these souvenirs are made from wood that is grown in Costa Rica and the jewelry that is sold here is also made in their shop. This souvenir shop was very unique and had some pretty cool things. After shopping for a little while, we went eat lunch at their restaurant. Once we finished eating, we headed off to our next business tour at Samtec. This business creates many products that are used for communications in a wide variety of products. How these people created these products is very impressive. The have also grown significantly since they first opened a few years ago. Like Boston Scientific, Samtec is also located in a free trade area. Overall, the tour was very interesting even though I didn't completely understand how their products were created (Just being honest). After touring Samtec, we headed to downtown San Jose to walk around the streets. It was really cool to see all of the locals walking around the city. We were also able to walk around he central market. They had a bunch of shops with different foods, clothing items, and many different other items. After touring San Jose, we headed back to the hotel to pack up and head to the beach in Tammarindo! Way too excited!!
Dr. Lanier asked us to discuss some of the pros and cons for Costa Rica in offering these free trade zones to foreign companies and why foreign companies want to locate in these free zones. These free trade zones have many pros. One pro would be that the companies within this area do not have to pay any tariffs or taxes on goods that are shipped from this area. These areas could be a con because it doesn't allow for products to be directly transported to Costa Rica. For example, let's say that a Costa Rican company would like to purchase some items from Boston Scientific, they wouldn't be able to unless they were shipped to the United States before being sold to Costa Rican stores. Many companies would want to relocate their companies to Costa Rica because the cost of labor is much cheaper than other countries, such as the United States.
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