NewsWhore
08-24-2007, 03:00 PM
DR1 News erroneously reported on 21 August that the DR would be able to export sugar to the US with relatively low tariffs following a recent increase in the sugar export quota, as reported in Listin Diario. The US Trade Representative Office (USTR) increased the DR's sugar export quota to 185,335 metric tons per year. This came as the USTR designated sugar quotas for 40 countries for the 2008 fiscal year, which begins on 1 October. Listin Diario reports that the DR and Brazil were the countries that received the highest preferential quotas. Robin Johnson, of Balch & Bingham, LLP, corrected the report indicating that all raw sugar exported from the DR to the US is duty-free under the DR-CAFTA agreement. He explains that before DR-CAFTA went into force this year, all Dominican raw sugar exports were already duty-free under the Caribbean Basin Initiative that went into effect in 1983. The Dominican Republic has had the largest share of the US quota since restrictive country-by-country quotas were imposed in 1982. Johnson is the Dominican sugar industry's legal adviser in Washington DC and has been working with Dominican sugar producers for almost 30 years.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#7)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#7)