The Dominican ratification and Presidential publication of the bill will now force Dominican customs officials to move faster to process containers entering the nation’s harbors. This, according to the Committee on Expediting Commerce, a part of the American Chamber of Commerce in Santo Domingo, is what is needed in order for the country to compete in the new DR-CAFTA free trade area. Shipper Jeffrey Rannik, the head of the Committee, told Hoy economic writers that the private sector is working with the government in order to expedite the movement of containers in and out of Dominican ports. Currently, it takes an average of 12 days to get a container out of a Dominican port of entry, and this takes into account those containers heading for the industrial free zones. If these containers are taken out of the equation, the number of days, on average, increases to 15, and the DR-CAFTA agreement stipulates release of containers within 48 hours. Currently in Central America, it takes between three and four days to get a container out of customs, and in more developed nations, just 24 hours. Rannik said that for the DR to maintain its competitiveness, it needed to move containers much faster. He also pointed out that it was not just the customs officials that needed to be spurred on, since there are also officials from the Port Authority, port operators, and sanitary officials who need to work faster.
Furthermore, the team from Am-Cham – Rannik, Jose Nelton Gonzalez, Gustavo Tavarez and William Malamud – pointed out that customs officials were working out a set of risk profiles for major exporters and importers, in order to assess the risk and thus permitting less physical verifications of contents and more random checking. One of the steps to be taken is the modernization of the computer systems now being used by the Director General of Customs, which are very outdated. These steps will contribute to the swifter movement of cargo.