Ambassador describes DR-Canada free trade scenario
Dominican Today, 28 February 2006
Ambassador describes DR-Canada free trade scenario
SANTO DOMINGO.- Dominican Republic can favorably negotiate the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that has been outlined with Canada, as long as the official and private sector representatives define a good negotiating strategy on time.
According to Dominican ambassador in Canada, Eduardo Tejera, the fact that last November the Government requested the start of talks indicates that it is seeking "to assure an advantageous negotiating position or at least equal to those as the Central American nations that were already in that process."
He stressed the FTA’s importance capturing Canadian investments and for it “the Negotiating National Commission, the Foreign Ministry and the economic team, in allied with the private sector, must begin to create the sectorial work commissions and to study the product lists, the tariff options and categories."
Tejera said that there would not be conflicts in the area of sugar, nor on agricultural products or free zones, but Canada probably insists on issues such as manual labor.
It will widen the scope of new investments in the millions
Tejera feels that "the economic, commercial and educational perspectives are very favorable in case that a balanced FTA with Canada is negotiated, which protects the national interest and simultaneously helps to continue the hemispheric integration process."
He feels that Canada could increase its investments in Dominican sectors such the financial, petroleum, natural gas, fishing, construction, water infrastructure, electricity and forests and in the development of high tech and informatics industries.
For the country’s business sector, he said, it would have "great possibilities" of expanding to the Canadian market.
