The American Chamber of Commerce of the Dominican Republic sharply criticized the new US$95 surcharge for X-Ray inspection of outgoing container trailers. Adding their voice to those of the National Association of Young Entrepeneurs (ANJE), the Industrial Association of Haina and the Association of Warehouses, the chamber said that the measure would increase the cost of doing business in the Dominican Republic, and had the potential to create bottlenecks in the ports. Furthermore, according to AmCham, the use of X-Rays would not guarantee a continued access or preferential treatment in the United States marketplace. William Malamud, executive vice president of the American Chamber of Commerce, told reporters from the List?n Diario that 85% of Dominican exports are destined for the US market, and that nothing should be done to threaten the flow of merchandise or cause Dominican products to increase in cost. Malamud agrees that the private sector needs to implement programs and procedures to ensure that contraband does not enter the US. However, while it is necessary to be part of a system that instills confidence in the US authorities, if access to the US market is hampered by issues of security, time constraints, or cost inefficiency, he says the country will lose its competitive edge.
In a related story carried in the Hoy newspaper, Marisol Vicens, the speaker for ANJE, condemned Decree 898-02 which created the new charge and commented that the use of the funds generated by the new tax is not clearly defined. According to Vicens, the entire approval process was not sufficiently transparent, as there was no public discussion of the new service?s goals or of the need for the X-rays. The Warehouse Association described the measure as ?anti-export? in its comments to Hoy and Rafael Alvarez Crespo, of the Haina Industrial Association, said that only containers headed for countries that have specifically requested this type of inspection would need to be X-rayed, but that containers coming from these countries should also have to be submitted to the process. Those containers destined to countries that have not requested the inspection should be exempt, says Alvarez Crespo.