San Jose, Jul 31 (Prensa Latina) The free trade agreement between Costa Rica and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will enter into force in Barbados Tuesday, the foreign trade ministry announced Monday.

Costa Rican Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz revealed they already exchanged the related notes with Barbados´ Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Billie A. Miller.

"Barbados is the third Caribbean nation to join the agreement, which includes 12 of the 15 CARICOM member countries, whose majority should conclude an internal legal process to be able to sign the deal soon," the official said.

The free trade accord is very important for the productive sector, as Costa Rica was the first Central American nation and the second in the world to have signed such a deal with CARICOM, Ruiz stressed.

Apart from Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Surinam ratified the agreement, approved in September 2005 and including Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Surinam, and Trinidad and Tobago.