Dominican Today, Dominican Republic

Government to have an extra RD$2.35B income if Free Trade is delayed

7 June 2006

Santo Domingo.- The possible postponement of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Central America (DR-CAFTA) would secure for the central government additional income of, at least, RD$2,350 million during the second half of this year.

This is so, given that duty charges to be dismounted with the treaty’s implementation would be maintained.

The government had estimated that, if the FTA had started in January of this year, the impact caused by dismounting duty charges would be of RD$3,400 million, plus an additional reduction of RD$700 million by way of the Processed Goods and Services ITBIS tax on imports and RD$600 million applied to raw materials and capital from countries other than the United States, for a total of RD$4,700 million.

But since the FTA was postponed for the 1st of July 2006, this amount was only to be half of that amount.

Notwithstanding, with the projected new postponement, the Government would avoid dismounting the levies, and RD$2,350 million between July and December would be secured, assuming that entering the DR-CAFTA accord is delayed another six months.