Democrats won control of both chambers of the US Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections. The result hands President Donald Trump a divided government for his final two years in office. It does not lower the 12.5% duty Washington charges on most Costa Rican goods. The US trade office imposed that duty under a 1974 law that gives the decision to the executive branch.
The Associated Press called the Senate for Democrats late Tuesday after the party flipped several Republican seats. In Texas, James Talarico defeated Ken Paxton. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown unseated Sen. Jon Husted, and in North Carolina former Gov. Roy Cooper won the seat Thom Tillis is leaving.
NBC News and CBS News projected that Democrats will also hold a majority in the House. The new Congress is seated in January. Trump told The New York Times he was “absolutely willing to accept” the results and said, “We’ll work with the Democrats.” He also posted an image of his campaign hat bearing the word “VETO.” On Fox News, he said Democrats were “really not in control.”
Exit polls cited by CBS News put his approval among midterm voters at 38%. Costa Rica’s current rate comes from a Section 301 investigation the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) opened on March 12 into 60 economies. On June 2, the agency concluded that Costa Rica had failed to impose and enforce a ban on imports of goods made with forced labor.
The 12.5% rate took effect on July 24. It replaced the 10% surcharge Costa Rica had paid since April 2025. The USTR set two tiers. Economies with no forced-labor import ban pay 12.5%, and those with a ban that is weakly enforced pay 10%. The action has no expiration date and stays in place unless the agency amends it.
Coffee, pineapple, bananas, orange juice, plant cuttings, fruit and vegetable seeds and certain refined sugars are excluded, according to the Ministry of Foreign Trade (Comex). Textiles and apparel entering duty-free under the CAFTA-DR trade agreement are also exempt. Because Section 301 places the decision with the president and the USTR, a Democratic majority cannot repeal the duty by voting. A bill limiting it would need Trump’s signature, or two-thirds of both chambers to override a veto.
What Democrats gain is oversight: hearings, subpoenas and leverage over spending bills. Those tools can raise the political cost of trade measures without removing them. The same limits apply to the other US decisions that weigh most on Costa Rica. Visa rules, immigration enforcement and deportation flights are all set by the executive branch.
So are entry requirements such as the health declaration for US-bound air travelers, which took effect at 10:59 p.m. Costa Rica time Tuesday. That leaves Costa Rica’s own case before the USTR as the more direct route. On July 6, Comex asked the agency in written comments to drop the 12.5% rate and keep the market access Costa Rica negotiated under CAFTA-DR. The higher rate took effect 18 days later.
The government has since issued Decree 45941-H-MTSS-COMEX, published Sept. 28. It orders Comex and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security to create an official public list of goods at risk of being made with forced labor, and importers must check their purchases against it. The two ministries have 60 calendar days from the decree’s entry into force to set the parameters for the first list. The USTR has not said whether the measure would change Costa Rica’s tier.
That work now falls to new leadership at Comex. Arianna Arce Camacho is serving as interim Foreign Trade Minister after Indiana Trejos was removed on Oct. 28. That was the same day President Laura Fernández announced that Costa Rica would not pursue membership in the CPTPP. First Vice President Francisco Gamboa signed both orders while Fernández was in Europe. They were published in La Gaceta on Tuesday.
For now, the duty remains in place and Congress changes hands in January. Any change to Costa Rica’s rate will depend on how Washington’s trade office judges the measures the country is now building. As the analysts consulted before the vote expected, that decision still sits with the White House rather than Capitol Hill.
