Local cheese manufacturers strongly oppose the 84% additional tax on imported powdered milk. They complain it will kill their sales, as imported dairy products that are exempt from the tax will be much cheaper. Furthermore, mported dairy products already have lower production costs than Dominican dairy products as they are made from subsidized milk. Furthermore, imported cheese does not have to pay these high tariffs. The previous tariff was 20%. Pedro Augusto Evangelista, vice president of the Association of Dairy Product manufacturers said that 5 lbs. of cheese that cost RD$150 will now cost RD$300, making their cheeses prohibitive for the Dominican public and putting them out of business. The 84% tax is levied as part of the World Trade Organization agreements to protect local milk producers. The tax is levied now that the minimal quota of 32,000 metric tons set for year 2000 has been reached at half year. Sectors say that the tariff instead of helping milk producers will have a boomerang effect as it will make milk so expensive that consumers will stop drinking it and sales of even their fresh milk will plummet.
