DR1 Daily News - Dominican Republic

The Abinader administration leaves it up to the US government to appeal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) after it added a tax to US rice imports to protect Dominican production. The tax is a violation to the DR-CAFTA Treaty that had given local rice producers 20 years to be able to compete with rice producers from the United States. Local rice producers say US production is subsidized.

With the DR-CAFTA provision for tax free imports of US rice going into effect on 1 January 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce announced that the government had issued Decree 693-24 to protect the nation’s rice production.

Acento explains that the decree, effective 17 December 2024, maintains the existing conditions under the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) while introducing new tariffs on rice imports.

According to Article 1 of Decree 693-24, rice products will be subject to the tariff treatment outlined in Dominican Republic’s...