In 1984, economist, historian, ambassador Bernardo Vega presented the Dominican application to join the Lome Convention countries to the headquarters of the Convention in Brussels, Belgium. Admission to the facilities of the convention would allow the Dominican Republic to export products and receive foreign aid under very favorable terms. At the time, Vega was not particularly optimistic about the DR’s chances, since, in general, the convention was apparently designed to benefit the former English, French and Belgium colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. The Dominican Republic, at the time Saint Domingue, was a French colony for a very short period of time, and admitting a Spanish-speaking country for the first time would create a precedent for the Central American nations to try and obtain their membership, too. However, time and the entry of Spain into the European Community, not only our country but also Haiti (a joint request had been filed) were accepted. The Central American nations did not even ask to join.
Under the terms of Lome, and its successor, the Cotonou Accord, the Dominican Republic has received a large volume of monetary assistance, but also gained access to the preferential markets of the European Community that has a larger population than the United States. One example of this is the large quantity of bananas that are being exported to Europe.
Nonetheless, with the end of the Cotonou Accord, in the same way the Americans are doing it, the Europeans are not demanding certain conditions, since the day of one-way agreements disappeared with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Europe will be negotiating a new deal with the English-speaking Caribbean, Haiti and the Dominican Republic within two years at the latest. Before this happens, those of us in the Caribbean will have to get together and put together a common front for the negotiations. Since the Europeans have had so much success with their economic integration, according to Vega, they are now demanding that the fragmented Caribbean, fragmented because of European colonialism in the 16th and 17th centuries, achieve the same sort of economic integration as a sort of pre-condition for a continuation of the Cotonou benefits.
They want a European traveler that arrives in Santo Domingo to be able to continue on to Jamaica without having to pass through Immigration, such as happens when one arrives in Madrid, and travels throughout the European Union. They are also pushing for a facility that will allow a European product, once it arrives in a CARICOM nation, say, the DR, to be shipped to Trinidad or Haiti without going through more Customs clearances, such as happens when a Dominican product reaches France, and from there it continues on to any other country of the EU.
In order to achieve this, the CARICOM region, including the DR, will have to adopt a common set of tariffs, otherwise, European goods will enter the ports of the country with the lowest tariffs. This, of course, would bring even greater problems for the Dominican tax and tariff reform programs. Products from Central America and North America would then be subject to the lesser taxes agreed to under the DR-CAFTA Agreement, if this is ratified. But if the congresses do approve the pact, then it is probable that the Europeans will exercise their rights under the Cotonou Accord and demand the Most Favored Nation status, and then the DR (but not the CARICOM nations that have not signed FTAs with the United States) will have to give the Europeans the same tax breaks that we have agreed to with the US and Central America. Vega just signs off with: Tremendous problem!