The Association of Blond Tobacco Producers has written Foreign Minister Eduardo Latorre urging the Fern?ndez Government not to yield to pressure from the Central American governments to re-negotiate the "negative list" agreed in the Miami Protocol with those countries. They argue that if they are exposed to full competition from Central American producers their industry will be severely affected. They cite lower-cost drying methods employed there, plus government subsidies given to their Central American competitors. They also point to the precedent of Costa Rica, whose blond tobacco producers were effectively wiped out when import tariffs were eliminated on tobacco from Guatemala and Honduras under the Central American Community’s (CCA) own common market treaty. Do the same here, they warn, and Dominican cigarette producers will start sourcing from Guatemala and Honduras instead of locally. A similar letter was sent to the Governor of Santiago Rodr?guez Province, where much of the blond tobacco is grown.The Miami Protocol is the addition to the DR-CCA free trade treaty signed in spring 1998; the Protocol details how the treaty’s general trade provisions are to be interpreted and implemented. The Protocol features restrictions on market access for a number of agricultural and fishery goods, including a "negative list" of products excluded from the trade liberalization measures of the Treaty, such as beef, beer, chicken, cigarettes, milk and shrimp. Honduras and Nicaragua have yet to sign the Miami Protocol, at first blaming the delay on damage to their economies by Hurricane Mitch and later saying that they wanted better market access terms from the Dominican Republic for their products.
