In Costa Rica, unilateral trade liberalization came quickly during the 1980s. Early in the
decade, as in the previous two or three decades, tariffs averaged over 100 percent,
including prohibitive rates for most products. By the mid-1980s tariff rates began to
steadily fall, with the average at 85 percent, reaching reaching 6 percent in 2002 and only
2 percent today. This means that for the overwhelming majority of products, producers for
the domestic market face international competition. This has created a competitive
pressure that helps raise productivity, allowing consumers to buy and producers to source
their inputs at lower prices. It has also allowed, in most industries, a base on which to build
export growth.