NewsWhore
11-13-2006, 03:50 PM
The Dominican Republic has joined other Asian, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations in asking the European Union to maintain its tariff of EUR176 per ton of bananas from Central and South America. The DR maintained that this tariff has helped the region increase its imports to the European Union and prevented "social problems". According to Minister of Agriculture, Salvador Jimenez, he presented the nation's position at a recent meeting of banana producing nations from the ACP region in Paris. According to Jimenez, the current transition period of the tariffs has been adequate, and there are no longer any obstacles to third country exports, and at the same time there has been a slight increase in ACP production. Jimenez said that any change in the current tariffs would create a social problem in rural areas in banana producing nations. The minister argued for maintaining the current quota of 775,000 metric tons for the entire ACP region. Data from the Ministry of Agriculture shows that by this year's end the Dominican Republic will have exported 11,000,000 boxes of bananas with a value of US$80 million.
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More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#1)