Carolina Palma

EY - Tax & Global Trade Law

Profile

Carolina Palma is an Indirect Tax Partner and Leader of the Global Trade and Customs Division for Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic with more than 15 years of experience as a trade and customs attorney. She has advised businesses in establishing operations in Central America, in supply chain optimization, duty preferences, trade and customs compliance, customs valuation and all import or export related matters. She is also a professor at the University of Costa Rica where she teaches the courses Dispute Resolution, Multilateral Trade and Market Access.

She has been involved as an advisor in projects in collaboration with the World Trade Organization (WTO) where she has taught the Customs Valuation Module as an invited professional, the World Trade Institute in Switzerland, the SIECA, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the University of Costa Rica.

She formerly worked as a trade negotiator of Free Trade Agreements at the Ministry of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica, when the Free Trade Agreement with the European Union was concluded, DR-CAFTA was implemented and she also contributed to the group in charge of Investment Disputes and Litigation. She has given legal advice to the Embassy of Costa Rica in China and she has negotiated Dispute Settlement, Market Access and Regional Integration topics within Central America.

As an attorney, she has advised governments, private sector chambers and businesses in trade and customs areas. Currently, Ms. Palma also serves as Team leader for the EUCA Trade project, implementation of the EU Agreement in Central America. Moreover, Ms. Palma has participated as a panelist in conferences for the WTO, the ICTSD, the UNCTAD, the YAF, the ICC, the SIECA, INCAE Business School, Cornell University, and Georgetown University, among others.

In the field of Customs Valuation, the Trade & Customs Team in Central America has carried out assessments for more than 20 companies in the region, including companies in the retail sector, pharma sector, customs agencies and customs brokers, and companies in the automotive industry.

Ms. Palma is an attorney and holds two Masters’ degrees in International Law and International Trade, furthermore she concluded PhD studies at Switzerland’s World Trade Institute at the University of Bern in 2019.

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