President Leonel Fernandez met yesterday for two and a half hours with the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, US Ambassador Hans Hertell and Monsignor Agripino Nunez at the Presidential Palace. The purpose of the encounter was to find a solution to the impasse over the corn syrup surcharge that was included in the approved tax reform bill. Ambassador Hertell reaffirmed that if the local authorities uphold the 25% surcharge on corn syrup imports ratified by Congress, the DR would be excluded from the free trade agreement signed with the US in August 2004, as reported in the Listin Diario. The US would proceed and unilaterally grant FTA status to the other Central American signatory countries, leaving the DR out of the agreement.
Listin Diario reports that the President will most likely sign the bill today as it stands, thereafter sending an amendment to Congress that would nullify the 25% surcharge.
As per the Dominican Constitution, unless the President vetoes the law, he must sign it within the eight days after having received it and publish it within 15 days of its signing for it to go into effect.
Meanwhile, Adozona said that a suspension of the FTA would represent the loss of thousands of local jobs because contract work would migrate to companies located in Central America and Mexico.