It is expected that the implementation of the DR-CAFTA agreement, scheduled for 1 July 2006, will once more be postponed. The most important issues delaying the treaty’s implementation, as reported in Diario Libre, is the approval of a government procurement law, sorting out of differences over Law 173 on Import Agents and Law 20-2000 on patents. Likewise, the enactment of mobile telephone number portability, or the ability of a customer to retain their existing phone number when changing their carriage service provider is pending implementation.
Free trade zone entrepreneurs, concerned that they may lose work contracts to Central American countries where the accord has been implemented, are urging the government to move ahead as scheduled.
Commenting on the delays, Franco Uccelli of Bear Stearns states that a two or three month further delay would merely impact the country’s international image, but would not severely affect its current economic standing. He said in his recent report: “We believe that investment plans and commitments already made are unlikely to change destination as long as any additional delays are reasonably short,” he writes in a 19 June report. “Accordingly, we believe that DR-CAFTA implementation in the DR is simply a matter of time and that the country’s substantial investment pipeline will not be notoriously affected if the July 1st implementation target date is not met.”