Hector Guilliani Cury, head of the Ministry of Foreign Relations’ Intelligence Unit, proposes that the DR should grant the same preferential treatment to Europe that the USA receives under the DR-CAFTA agreement.
Motor vehicles, electronic appliances and all products manufactured in Europe, while not in the DR, would then receive duty-free and quota-free access, entering the country with no Customs taxes, explained economist Guilliani today in Hoy newspaper. By enacting this proposal, the existing monopoly of duty preferences (zero taxes) enjoyed by US exports in items like cars, household equipment, wine, whiskies, etc., would be dismantled by the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
Once granted to the European Union within the EPA, an agreement that is scheduled to be concluded and signed by 15 October 2007, this “free trade preference” to all the products not manufactured in the Caribbean region will also be extended to Canada and Mexico, countries with which official negotiations are also due to begin in the last quarter of this year. Guilliani explained that if the government adopts “CAFTA parity” as a general principle (granting the same CAFTA treatment to other major trade partners) it would send a clear signal to the private sector.
The DR would be ready to support the market access proposal made by the EU excluding 15% of trade from liberalization in the region. The Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery presented a proposal in that sense which, according to Hector Guilliani, the DR is ready to support. He concluded that the Caribbean countries should grant each other the same market access treatment granted to Europe, while stating that the EPA should be signed this year by the countries that are ready, and afterwards by the ones that are not can adhere.