Barely hours before the signing of the DR-CAFTA agreement that will promote free trade between the United States and the Dominican Republic, resistance to the treaty and the defense of the negotiations become more strident. Industry & Commerce Minister Sonia Guzman told members of the press that at 5pm today she and US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick would sign the agreement on behalf the their respective governments. Just one hour before the minister?s comments to the press, the associations of agricultural producers renewed their call for a postponement of the deal?s ratification and a more profound study of the text. They denounced the lack of protection of internal subsidies, import quotas and their special interests. The Lawyers? Association told reporters that excluded from the agreement was Annex 2, which refers to the bilateral homologation of legal services.<\/p>\n
Guzman accused the La Romana Corporation of financing a multimillion-peso campaign for the agricultural producers to voice their complaints. No comment was forthcoming from Carlos Morales Troncoso, an official of that company. Economist and consultant Frederic Emam-Zade told reporters that ?the best kept secret in the negotiations? was the fact that the European Union, Central America and the Caribbean nations would have equal access under the provisos of the FTA with the US. Emam-Zade pointed out that, until now, the negotiators have limited themselves to saying that neither the World Trade Organization (WTO) nor the FTA with the US obliges our country to extend the concessions to other countries. The Funglode economist says that this a half-truth, however. The reality of the situation is that the DR is a signatory of the Cotonou Convention, which provides for assistance from the European Union to the ACP countries (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific), including the DR. Article 5 of Chapter I contained Annex V of the convention says that developing ACP nations can lower trade barriers amongst themselves without conferring equal treatment to European Union countries, but if they lower commercial tariffs with industrialized nations, they must offer the same conditions to the EU countries as well. In this situation, the DR has three options: (a) extend equal treatment to all of the WTO members in accordance with Most Favored Nation principles; (b) request a waiver to provide these conditions only to the EU or (c) draw up economic arrangements that will be give concessions that match those given to the WTO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Barely hours before the signing of the DR-CAFTA agreement that will promote free trade between the United States and the Dominican Republic, resistance to the treaty and the defense of the negotiations become more strident. Industry & Commerce Minister Sonia Guzman told members of the press that at 5pm today she and US Trade Representative … <\/p>\n