According to a report in El Caribe, Foreign Relations Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso has asked ministers participating in the 14th Cariforum Ministerial Meeting, held in Santo Domingo on 14-15 July, to consider the admission of the DR to the Caribbean Common Market (CARICOM). This would accelerate the country’s integration with the regional group of nations that will begin the 3rd phase of the construction process of the Economic Association Agreement with the European Union next September. The DR is a member of Cariforum, the Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP), but not of CARICOM (Caribbean Community), a group of 15 states that share trade preferences with the EU until 2008.
Upon concluding the meeting, Cariforum ministers will hold high-level talks with the European Union mission in the Dominican Republic on regional cooperation standards.