Martinez Moya on DR-CAFTA

[NewsWhore]

A former high-ranking official in several administrations, Arturo Martinez Moya takes a sharp look at the impact of the recently implemented DR-CAFTA agreement in an article in Hoy. The free trade agreement between the five Central American states, the Dominican Republic and the United States is now fully under way, but, in Martinez Moya's opinion it is quite possible that the Dominican government has not looked at all the possibilities. In fact, he ventures to say that the country has gone blindly into DR-CAFTA. He says that if there is a document that estimates the benefits and possible losses of the agreement, it is under wraps and of no use to anyone. His personal opinion is that such a study does not exist. After looking at imports from the United States and Dominican exports to the United States, in what he says is a fairly "conservative point of view," Martinez states that in the "short term" there will be a US$170 million trade balance in favor of the US. This represents over a quarter of the total increase in trade between the US and the DR brought on by the agreement. In addition, Martinez Moya points out that while most Dominican exports have traditionally been duty free in the US, since they are raw materials or of low added value, and what is imported from the US is generally speaking of high added value, the balance is once again against the DR consumer. Martinez Moya asks whether the DR consumer will be helped by the agreement in the short-term. His answer is already in the stores. Because the government's recent "tax correction" measures have increased taxes on many items, prices have risen almost across the board. The former official calls on the government to re-launch its support for small and medium businesses; to increase funding for education and training for the workforce; and to focus on businesses with higher value added products.

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