An MRA doesn't make the requirements the same
What an MRA actually does
Recognition grants benefits at the border and removes duplicate verification: an operator accepted as an OEA by one participating customs service isn't re-vetted by the others. It does not harmonise the admission requirements. The two programmes stay distinct; each side keeps its own rules.
Where the friction is real
- Different validation basis. MRAs are signed only after mutual compatibility studies — proof the programmes are not identical. Costa Rica and China ran such studies from 2019 before signing.
- Converging classes, not identical. Since early 2025 Costa Rica grants two tiers: OEA Simplificaciones and OEA Simplificaciones Aduaneras y Seguridad — close to the EU's AEOC/AEOS split. Closer than before, but the security requirements and self-assessment questionnaires are Costa Rica's own, so an EU tier still doesn't map automatically onto a CR tier.
- Different obligations. Four-year validity with mandatory re-application versus the EU's indefinite, monitored status; the article 268 self-assessment cycle; a distinct guarantee architecture.
The point that matters for a multinational
A company holding EU AEO status that wants OEA certification in Costa Rica cannot lean on its European certificate. It runs the Costa Rican procedure separately, and the internal-controls documentation the EU accepted must be re-mapped to what Regulation 44051-H requires. Given that the current OEA register is almost entirely multinationals — most of whom hold EU or US AEO-equivalents — this is not hypothetical. It's the usual starting point.