dreadlocks previously said:

once again, Belly, i realise that Domicem is not the Dominican Republic. i am not using it as a basis for generalisations. if you read my posting carefully, you would see that it is one example of a series of issues which troubled Caricom. the DR was admitted somewhere in 1998 to Caricom with limited status. a trade agreement actually exists between the DR and Caricom states, but full membership has been delayed, because no concensus has been arrived at regarding their full admission. in the past, member states have complained about reservations they have in the way the DR sought to do business. i myself have had issues just trying to get INFORMATION from the trade department here. i wanted to import certain jamaican products from a famous manufacturer. i called the offices, and was told to send an email with my questions to a lady, who would supply me with the data i needed. one year after i started the quest, i gave up, because not one of my 4 emails was answered. maybe that is why number 101 out of 139 countries is the place it occupies in the competitiveness rankings. Jamaica is not a heck of a lot better, but that is not the focus of this posting. maybe you should take the initiative to voice your concerns about such deficiencies to the relevant and offending parties, rather than taking umbrage when other observers discuss them

dreadlocks previously said:

well, when the issue of the DR joining caricom was ventilated in this forum, most domnicans stated that the DR should not focus on entry to caricom, because it already had DRCAFTA. they felt that it was a feather in their cap to be trading with big, bad , Uncle Sam, while trading with Jamaica and Barbados would be belittling to such a great power as the DR. they were encouraged by their cheerleader, blutarsky, who sided with their nonsense. i tried to explain to them that asymmetric trading arrangements are usually detrimental to the smaller parties, and that trading partners of roughly equal market sizes generally end up with more mutually favorable incomes. well, look at it today...the trade imbalance betwen the USA and the DR is staggering, and the crap is yet to hit the fan. wait till all the regulations regarding intellectual property kick in, and Belkis can no longer buy the ibuprofen in the red white and blue packaging, but has to get stuff made by Merck or some other conglomerate. the DR has a healthy positive balance of trade with Haiti, because their demand for goods is greater than our demands for what they produce. it is not as though the local politicians do not know what i am talking about. they just refuse to do anything sensible.

dreadlocks previously said:

well, Atabey, we are on the same page today. hiding from competition is what makes you uncompetitive. if you have a football team, and the only other teams you want to compete against are those from the local girls´high school, your game will never improve. if you believe that protectionism is going to help you in the 21st century, you are better off shutting down your productive base , and importing everything.