No new FTA's

[NewsWhore]

Juan Bancalari and Milagros Puello, president and vice president respectively of the Santo Domingo Chamber of Commerce and Production, are urging the government not to sign any new free trade agreements this year and say that any similar negotiations should cease. Both executives say that the country needs to wait and see how things develop with DR-CAFTA and then focus on signing new agreements with Caricom and the European Union. Puello said that after five years of the signing of the agreement with Caricom, Dominican goods still enter that market with tariffs, which she sees as a threat to Dominican competitiveness. Puello says that the government should understand that there should be limits on signing so many free trade agreements. In referencing free trade agreements, both executives cited the planned agreements with Taiwan and with countries like Colombia and the Mercosur trading block, which produce almost the same products and have more tropical fruits than the DR. Bancalari says that before signing any more agreements, the country should evaluate if it would be beneficial, adding that agreements can't be put in place from one day to another.

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