[Ip-health] Dominican Republic, USA Eye FTA Signing for Mar 12,2004

[Robert Weissman]

"The Dominican Republic and the USA expect to sign a free trade agreement
(FTA) on March 12, 2004, Minister-Counsellor at the Dominican Embassy in
Washington, Judith Marcano, said on March 7, 2004."


Latin America News Digest
Dominican Republic, USA Eye FTA Signing for Mar 12, 2004
8 March 2004

The Dominican Republic and the USA expect to sign a free trade agreement
(FTA) on March 12, 2004, Minister-Counsellor at the Dominican Embassy in
Washington, Judith Marcano, said on March 7, 2004.

The Dominican Republic and the USA will start the third and last round of
negotiations over the FTA on March 8, 2004. The Dominican Republic will thus
join the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), signed in Washington
on December 17, 2003 by the USA with El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and
Guatemala. Costa Rica joined CAFTA with the USA on January 25, 2004.

The most controversial issues in the negotiations between the Dominican
Republic and the USA have remained for the final stage of talks. The most
thorny issues include the elimination of the Dominican duties on the U.S.
agricultural products and the introduction of Dominican sugar on the U.S.
market. The Dominican Republic wants to delay the elimination of the customs
barriers for the U.S. agricultural imports, which are government protected,
because the measure will harm the Dominican agricultural sector,
concentrating the poorest population in the country. In turn, the USA
rejected introducing free trade of sugar in the FTAs signed over the last
years. The Central American countries achieved doubling sugar export quotas
to the USA within the CAFTA framework and ensured annual increases of
between 2.0 pct and 3.0 pct.

The Minister of Industry and Commerce of the Dominican Republic, Sonia
Guzman, is also chief negotiator for the Dominican Republic for its FTA with
the USA. She co-ordinates a team of 50 negotiators. The negotiations started
in the Dominican Republic on January 14, 2004 and continued with a second
round of talks in Puerto Rico in February 2004.

The Dominican Republic is the largest economy in the Caribbean. It exports
$4.2 bln (3.438 bln euro) worth of products to the USA and imports $4.3 bln
(3.52 bln euro) worth of products from the USA annually.