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Article Excerpt
The Dominican Republic opened negotiations with the US on Jan. 14 on a bilateral trade agreement. US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick participated in this, the first round, scheduled to run through Jan. 16.
If the talks end in an agreement, the plan is for the Dominican Republic to be integrated into the recently completed, but as yet unratified, Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The other CAFTA members are Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. The Dominican Republic fills a spot in the CAFTA lineup left vacant by Costa Rica, which dropped out of the talks at the last minute to seek a better deal with the US bilaterally (see NotiCen, 2003-12-18).
Zoellick, well-experienced in bringing poor countries aboard, said in a press release, "An agreement with Dominicana will bring economic opportunities for farmers, workers, consumers, and business in the United States, in Dominicana, and with our Central American partners." He said that the newly combined markets would represent the second-largest export market to the US in Latin America, after Mexico.
With much of the work already done during the yearlong CAFTA talks, the US has scheduled just three sessions to wrap things up with the Dominican Republic, the largest economy in the Caribbean Basin. The Dominican Republic exported US$4.2 billion to the US in 2002 and US$4.3 billion in 2003. The US is the island nation's...
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More articles from NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs
PANAMANIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES DIFFER, BUT NOT ON PLATFORMS., January 22, 2004
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