The Dominican Republic yesterday suspended trade negotiations with the Caribbean Common Market (CARICOM) because the latter wishes to exclude too many products from tariff cuts. Industry and Commerce Deputy Minister Luisa Fernández explained that CARICOM came to the negotiations on November 17-18 in Port of Spain, Trinidad seeking to place nearly 900 products on its "negative list" of products to be excluded from the tariff cuts agreed in principle in an agreement signed between the DR and CARICOM on August 22, 1998. The DR proposed only 15 items for the negative list. The DR was also upset by CARICOM’s offer to only provide 257 items with Most Favored Nation (MFN) status. MFN is a guiding principle of the World Trade Organization (WTO) under which any such tariff concession made to one WTO member must be provided to all, and usually the concession is locked into place and cannot be raised again at-will. CARICOM proposed a list of about 234 products for which it was willing to provide "gradual" tariff reductions. Appalled by the tariff offers, the DR suspended other talks planned for the important question of rules of origin (rules which govern how much content determines a product comes one country vs. another, which often makes a difference in its tariff treatment and its vulnerability to nontariff restrictions such as import quotas). "The Dominican delegation in these circumstances understood that it could not expect a fruitful discussion," Fernández told El Siglo, "and taking into account that there is a link between the product lists and the rules of origin, it decided to suspend the negotiations so that CARICOM can reevaluate its list and the Dominican side can analyze it."
