Lisandro Macarrulla, the president of the Industrial Association of the Dominican Republic, said that the AIRD rejects any subsidy to any sector of the economy, and specifically to the hog and chicken farmers. The AIRD president urged the government to follow a currency exchange policy rooted in prudence, rather than the application of different rates for different sectors of the economy.
Lisandro Macarrulla told the List?n Diario that the proposed differential would represent a RD$180-million loss to the government over the next three months. He also said that the government should reduce this type of intervention ?to the least degree?, because it sends a bad signal to the different economic agents in the DR. He warned that it might affect the climate for investment in the country, too.
Last week, the government offered to provide an exchange rate of RD$25 to US$1 for the hog and chicken producers to purchase raw materials, with any discrepancy to come from the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Macarrulla warned that such subsidies would be in violation of the GATT accords and the WTO (World Trade Organization) statutes.