A UVM blog Madeline’s Costa Rica Adventures

Baxter Medical is a transnational corporation based in the United States that has factory and office locations in 40 countries, including Costa Rica. Baxter Medical produces a variety of medical tools and services for healthcare professionals. The company focuses on three sectors: renal products (including dialysis machines), medication delivery, and bioscience.

The Costa Rica manufacturing plant is located in the city of Cartago, which is in the central region of the country southeast of San José. The plant was established in 1987, and is still going strong today. Baxter Cartago is involved with medication delivery, specifically the production of IV administration sets. The plant is Costa Rica’s fourth largest exporter. Products from the plant are shipped off to 60 countries around the world, although the majority of production goes back to the United States. The facility is 152,000 square feet, and currently employs around 1,200 people.

I wasn’t able to find any articles that documented the impacts of Baxter’s Cartago plant in Costa Rica, but I think that the plant has both positive and negative impacts on Costa Rica. Some positive social and economic impacts that the facility have may include creating job opportunities within the country, providing local people with a stable source of income, accelerating the Costa Rican economy, and prompting an improvement in infrastructure in order to transport products. Some negative social and economic impacts include the fact that much of the profits of the company will be sent overseas instead of staying in the local economy, and that the plant may outcompete local businesses. I was surprised to learn that Baxter’s Cartago plant became completely carbon neutral in 2007, and the first Costa Rican manufacturing facility to do so. For this reason, it does not have a detrimental environmental impact and sets a good example for other manufacturing facilities in Costa Rica.

I think that neo-liberalism best represents the presence of this transnational corporation in Costa Rica because Baxter has built a facility in Cartago in order to make a profit, not to exercise control over the area. Labor costs are lower in Costa Rica, and the country is entered into free trade zones that provide several tax incentives to foreign companies so it makes sense for Baxter to manufacture their products here for cheaper than they can in the United States.

Citations

Baxter Healthcare Cartago Facility. Pharmaceutical Technology. (2009, August 16). Retrieved February 7, 2022, from https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/projects/baxter-cartago/

Colantuoni, S. (2020, October 23). Seven reasons for companies to be manufacturing in Costa Rica. The Central American Group. Retrieved February 7, 2022, from https://www.thecentralamericangroup.com/companies-should-consider-manufacturing-in-costa-rica/