Dominican businesses are urging Caribbean countries to implement the free trade agreement recently passed. While the governments have passed the agreement, Customs Departments in several Caribbean islands have not allowed Dominican goods shipments to enter duty free. To pressure the Caribbean islands to comply, local business groups requested that the Dominican customs department retaliate by doing the same. As a result, six containers with goods from the Caribbean that would have entered duty free have been stopped in Customs. The shipments are on temporary hold to pressure Caribbean Customs departments to comply with the request from the private sector.
