The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) are at loggerheads over the Dominican government’s decision to not eliminate but rather increase the exchange commission from 10 to 13% of the amount of dollars needed to import anything in hard currency. Hoy reports that the WTO sees the foreign exchange commission as incompatible with binding international agreements. They have also disputed the 2% surcharge on imports and the requirement to put a stamp of origin on cigarettes imported from outside the Dominican Republic. The WTO panel agreed that these dispositions are not in consonance with WTO regulations. Despite the opinion of the WTO, the IMF does not feel that the exchange commission constitutes a restriction on free trade. Honduras took its case against the Dominican Republic to the WTO because the surcharges became cost roadblocks that prevented Honduran-made cigarettes from entering the Dominican market. The WTO board decided that the Dominican Republic had failed in several instances to live up to the GATT agreements. The IMF answered the WTO by saying that exchange commission was legally created by the Central Bank and that although it has changed its collections agency to the Dominican Customs Office, the Central Bank is still the recipient of the money. IMF official Francois Gianviti says that the Central Bank originally charged a legal commission on the sale of hard currency, but now it is paid as a condition for the importation of goods purchased abroad, and as such it is not seen as a restriction to commerce as seen by the IMF.