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SANTO DOMINGO.- President Leonel Fernandez met Wednesday with Dominican Free Zones Association (Adozona) executives, just a few days before he submits the amendment of Free Zones Law 8-90 to Congress, as the Free Trade Agreement (Dr-Cafta) stipulates.

Although it’s assumed that the amendment to the law which would let free zones market all their products in the country was discussed in the more than one hour meeting, neither the industrialists nor the Presidency’s Press Office provided details.

After leaving the meeting Adozona president Fernando Capellan declined comment on the meeting’s content, noting that there was nothing to say on the Law’s amendment, which stipulates that as of January the free zones may sell all their products in the country, but must pay Itbis and income taxes and tariffs in the same conditions as local industries.

The country has until December to reform the legislation, to abide by what the Dr-Cafta established.

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COMMENTS
3 comment(s)
Written by: josean, 25 Nov 2009 4:42 PM
From: United States
Another can of worms?
Written by: juanb, 25 Nov 2009 8:59 PM
From: Dominican Republic
This is going to be very interesting, considering that 95% of the free zone factories are merely contractors. That means that they are selling only the labor necessary to finish the components that they are supplied with. What are they going to do now? Are they going to sell the products that belong to someone else?

And another thing: Will passing this law cause us to be excluded from the CAFTA-DR FTA? If you think people are complaining about our participation in it, wait until you hear the same jerks complaining that we are no longer a member country.

Our governments foot dragging and delay in passing the required legislation to join CAFTA allowed most of the sewing business to go to Central America. The US companies refused to pay a 20% duty when they could ship from member countries duty free, which is why most free zones looks like ghost towns today. If we lose CAFTA you can be sure that the few remaining factories will close.
Written by: WalterPolo, 25 Nov 2009 9:31 PM
From: Dominican Republic, Puerto Plata
That will create a potentially unfair competition viv-a-vis the manufacturing sector outside the zonas francas, that run at higher costs= higher prices.
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