16 May 2020 – Limits to the entry of foreign carriers into the country

Type of Intervention: Executive Order, Regulation
Sectors Involved: Foreign Affairs, Immigration, Private Sector and Businesses, Supply Chains
Intervention Categories: International travel measures
Level of Jurisdiction: National
Lead People/Agency: President of Costa Rica

Overview: The Government of Costa Rica announced the decision to limit the entry of foreign carriers in order to prevent the borders from eventually becoming sources of infection for the COVID-19 coronavirus. With that objective, President Carlos Alvarado issued two decrees that seek to maintain the fewest number of foreign transporters in the country, as well as guarantee the country’s imports and exports through land border posts. The measures establish that carriers may only enter the facilities of Costa Rican land border posts in order to carry out logistical operations required to guarantee the country’s imports and exports. Likewise, to guarantee imports and exports, different strategies were defined in inter-institutional coordination that allowed for the entry of goods under three conditions: 1) The driver locates the transport unit in the primary area, either this import or export cargo in order to separate the products from its container; 2) Another carrier hooks that container/load and transports the goods to either the national territory or to the Central American region; 3) Disinfection / deep cleaning must be carried out before the new driver takes over.
Full details here: https://www.presidencia.go.cr/comunicados/2020/05/costa-rica-limitara-ingreso-de-transportistas-por-frontera/

Type of Justification: No justification given