The president of the Confederacion Patronal de la República Dominicana, Nassim Alemany, says that the increase in marine freight charges will affect the production costs of manufacturing companies and will be passed on to the consumer. Mr Alemany explained that the decision taken by the Confederación del Atlantico Norte to increase the ocean fright charges by US$40 per container shipped to the D.R., does not relate to the current situation where the clearing of goods through customs is only taking three or four days.
Juan Periche Vidal, president of the Asociación Dominicana de Navieros, however, denied that the increase applied to all ocean freight, as had been announced by the Asociación de Industrias du la República Dominicana. He made it clear that the new rate only applied to containers coming from Puerto Rico.