The deputy and technical directors of the Customs department, Luis Sanchez and Eduardo Rodriguez, are disputing claims being made by three companies operating along the Haitian border area. These businesses were taking advantage of Law 28-01, which promotes border development and grants certain duty exemptions, by blurring the definitions between raw materials and finished goods, as reported in the Listin Diario. DR Customs is challenging tax-exempt imports made by Electro del Noroeste, Inversiones Margie located in Monte Cristi and Electricosa del Mundo. Executives of these companies insist that they have imported components for assembly and not finished goods. They say that finished goods are those that you can plug in, such as appliances, and have secured the support of the senators in the border region, Bernardo Aleman (Monte Cristi), Angel Dignocrates Perez (Pedernales) and Dagoberto Adames (Independencia) to fight their case against Customs, whose officials maintain that the items imported were finished goods. The freight containers, which were opened in the presence of the legislators, business representatives and members of the press, were found to contain refrigerators and washing machines, for which only the doors and motors were packaged separately. Other boxes opened contained fans ready to be assembled.
The importers are claiming the Customs officials are acting out of a conflict of interests and ignorance of Law 28-01.
Customs’ technical director said that the importers’ practice violates Resolution 2-95 of the World Trade Organization because the goods arrived needing only minimal assembly, and not to be transformed or manufactured as the law provides.
There have been complaints that many of the plants that are set up near the border to take advantage of the tax exemptions granted by law are merely warehouses, not manufacturing centers.