NewsWhore
10-26-2010, 03:30 PM
Trade negotiator Hugo Rivera Fernandez told El Caribe that the DR is worse off in trade with the US compared to before the signing of the DR-CAFTA agreement, primarily for a lack of political vision, not the trade agreement in itself. He said taxation has prevailed over creating a climate to stimulate production in the DR.
He says the DR has stepped four years back in time and that the government has prioritized its fiscal revenues instead of creating favorable conditions for competitiveness of the productive sectors.
He said before the agreement the DR exported more to the US than Chile and the Central American countries. This is no longer the case. He said because of the wrong decisions, the DR could become a net importer.
He said the first thing the country should have done was to compare the incentives the government was offering to producers with those offered in Central America. "The DR has not taken the integration system seriously and there has not been political will in that direction," said Rivera Fernandez in an interview on Puntos de Vista, Channel 9.
He said if incentives that Central America, the European Union, Puerto Rico or those that Obama is proposing for the US are analyzed, and the three or four tax code reforms and other local measures that have affected business here, "you will see that the DR is divorced from the reality in matters of incentives and conditions to produce."
He said that Costa Rica and other Central American countries are applying political pressure on the DR with the announcement that they are taking the case against the 38% tariff on selected imports to the World Trade Organization. He said the case would take at least two years to be resolved in the WTO, and the measure expires in 18 months. He said that the Dominican market was important for Costa Rica, which sells 8.5 times more to the DR than we do to Costa Rica.
He also criticized the fact that the local quality control department has not been working in harmony with the US. The US does not recognize the institute.
At present, the government is lobbying to for more taxation increases, reducing incentives to remaining sectors. Some of these sectors include apparel, renewable energy, filmmaking and book publishing.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#7)
He says the DR has stepped four years back in time and that the government has prioritized its fiscal revenues instead of creating favorable conditions for competitiveness of the productive sectors.
He said before the agreement the DR exported more to the US than Chile and the Central American countries. This is no longer the case. He said because of the wrong decisions, the DR could become a net importer.
He said the first thing the country should have done was to compare the incentives the government was offering to producers with those offered in Central America. "The DR has not taken the integration system seriously and there has not been political will in that direction," said Rivera Fernandez in an interview on Puntos de Vista, Channel 9.
He said if incentives that Central America, the European Union, Puerto Rico or those that Obama is proposing for the US are analyzed, and the three or four tax code reforms and other local measures that have affected business here, "you will see that the DR is divorced from the reality in matters of incentives and conditions to produce."
He said that Costa Rica and other Central American countries are applying political pressure on the DR with the announcement that they are taking the case against the 38% tariff on selected imports to the World Trade Organization. He said the case would take at least two years to be resolved in the WTO, and the measure expires in 18 months. He said that the Dominican market was important for Costa Rica, which sells 8.5 times more to the DR than we do to Costa Rica.
He also criticized the fact that the local quality control department has not been working in harmony with the US. The US does not recognize the institute.
At present, the government is lobbying to for more taxation increases, reducing incentives to remaining sectors. Some of these sectors include apparel, renewable energy, filmmaking and book publishing.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#7)