Dominican ambassador to the United States, Sonia Guzman told Katherine Hernandez, special reporter for CDN/El Caribe in New York to cover President Luis Abinader’s visit, that there are advances in talks on DR-CAFTA free trade agreement. Ambassador Sonia Guzman was minister of Industry and Commerce from 2002-2004 and key negotiator of the DR CAFTA for the Dominican government.
Her position now is that the country keep the same conditions. She said the Dominican Republic is negotiating so that the tariff on rice and bean imports is not dismantled.
“In DR-CAFTA the United States committed to dismantle agricultural subsidies in those 25 years and that has not happened. On the contrary, they have had difficult circumstances and we have had more, since we are a developing country,” she told CDN/El Caribe reporter.
The free trade agreement signed in August 2004 between this country, Central America and the United States (DR-Cafta) went into effect on 1 March 2007 for the Dominican Republic.
Ambassador Guzman said that President Luis Abinader met in New York with newly appointed Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian Nichols. Nichols is the top diplomat for Latin American and Caribbean affairs at the US State Department. “The President had a long conversation with him and we are on the right track,” said Guzman. Among the topics discussed was the fight against drug trafficking. “The United States verbally expressed to our President its satisfaction with how the Dominican Republic is confronting drug trafficking and corruption.”
Guzman said that up to now the relations of the Biden administration with Latin America have been slow due to the partisan polarization in Congress, which delays important appointments. The United States has not appointed an ambassador to the Dominican Republic.
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El Caribe
22 September 2021