The Dominican ambassador in Washington, Hugo Guiliani Cury, has warned that the Dominican Republic would be left out of the Central American free trade agreement (CAFTA) if it is not ready by April next year. He announced that US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick would visit the country in January to preside over the first round of talks, due to start on 8 January. Guiliani defined the prospective free trade agreement as a positive opportunity for the Dominican economy. “Like it or not, the US is the empire and it is opening the door to the Dominican economy. Today the doors are open, but tomorrow they could close and we could be shut out,” said the ambassador, addressing a lunch meeting of the Dominican American Chamber of Commerce. It could be a long time before an opportunity of this kind repeats itself, he said, and the country would remain isolated if it missed the boat. Guiliani also expressed optimism about the current crisis in the Dominican Republic, citing the country’s ability to overcome difficult moments in its history, such as in those of 1985 and during the 1990s, periods he described as worse than the present situation. He reminded his audience that between 1992 and 2002 the Dominican economy grew on average by 6% per annum – the best performance for all of Latin America, including Chile, which is widely believed to be the region’s economic success story.
With the prospective introduction of CAFTA in 2005, 80% of imports from the US would be exempt from taxes, representing a loss in government revenues of RD$14 billion in its first year, according to the calculations of economic think-tank CIECA (Caribbean Center for Economic Research), quoted in Diario Libre.
Economist Frederic Emam Zade, the country’s negotiator of the Caribbean and Central American bilateral agreements, has argued that if the DR is to open up its markets to US goods, then the US should open up its labor market in turn.