Q COSTARICA — The outgoing government of Rodrigo Chaves has authorized a modification to the free trade zone regime for Amazon Support Services Costa Rica, significantly reducing the company’s minimum employment commitment in the country.
The decision was established in Executive Agreement No. 5-2026, signed on January 5 by President Rodrigo Chaves and Minister of Foreign Trade Manuel Tovar, which amended the original agreement approved in 2021.
With this change, Amazon’s obligation to maintain a minimum of 16,450 employees has been reduced to a new threshold of 8,225, equivalent to a 50% reduction.
The modification responds to a request submitted by the company between August and November 2025, outlining changes in its operating environment and global employment strategy following the strong growth experienced during the pandemic.
According to the company, between 2016 and 2021, its employment commitment in Costa Rica increased from 3,655 to 16,450 workers, a nearly 350% increase, a goal it claims to have achieved in August 2022.
Amazon argued that the international business environment has changed substantially due to macroeconomic adjustments, pressures to optimize costs, and transformations in work models, with a greater emphasis on virtual work and talent specialization.
In Costa Rica, these changes involved a reorganization of its teams. The company indicated that customer service positions now represent less than 25% of its local workforce, while operations have shifted toward more specialized profiles.
Currently, Amazon maintains more than 50 business units in the country, linked to areas such as finance, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and robotics, which operate with smaller structures.
The request for reduction was analyzed by the Costa Rican Foreign Trade Promoter (PROCOMER), which recommended that the Executive Branch approve the modification, considering technical and legal criteria, as well as precedents from the Ministry of Foreign Trade regarding the flexibility of the regime in the face of economic changes.
The new agreement maintains the company’s investment commitments, totaling US$107.9 million, and establishes that PROCOMER will monitor compliance, with the possibility of revoking the regime if the conditions are not met.
The adjustment comes amid global staff reductions, after Amazon confirmed on January 28 the elimination of 16,000 jobs in the United States, Canada, and Costa Rica, hours after an email announcing the measure circulated internally and was subsequently deleted by the company.