RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/C/W/286
31 July 2001
(01-3798)
Council for Trade in Goods Original:  Spanish
REQUEST BY THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC FOR A WAIVER UNDER
ARTICLE IX OF THE WTO AGREEMENT FOR MINIMUM VALUES
UNDER THE AGREEMENT ON IMPLEMENTATION
OF ARTICLE VII OF THE GATT 1994
The following communication, dated 9 July 2001, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of the Dominican Republic.
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The Permanent Mission of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations Office and Other
International Organizations in Geneva presents its compliments to Mrs. Carmen  Luz Guarda, Director
of the WTO's Market Access Division, and has the honour to report that the Government of the
Dominican Republic has decided to request a reservation, pursuant to Annex III, paragraph 2, of theAgreement on Implementation of Article VII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994
(Customs Valuation Agreement), regarding the application by Dominican customs of minimum
values to a limited list of 31 products, for a transitional period.  This request was submitted in
document G/VAL/W/85 of 15 June 2001.
At present, the request is still being discussed informally with several interested delegations,
so there has been a delay in reaching a final conclusion.  Nevertheless, during this period, the customsof the Dominican Republic started to apply the valuation system in the GATT 1994 to all goods
covered by the national tariff, in conformity with document G/VAL/22 of 10 March 2000.  This
system is being applied in the context of a fragile financial situation caused by the increase in
petroleum costs, the downturn in the global economy and the fall in demand for our exports, a
situation that has led to a significant slowing down of the Dominican economy's growth rate.Moreover, this slowing down coincides with the appl ication of tariff and tax reforms, whose smooth
application means maintaining the Government's capacity to generate revenue.
For the above reasons, and taking into account the rules on the examination of requests for
waivers adopted on 1 November 1956, the Understanding in respect of waivers of obligations underthe General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994, and paragraphs 3 and 4 of Article IX of the
Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the WTO, we are requesting the Council for Trade in Goods for a
waiver to continue applying minimum import prices up to 1 July 2003 to the products contained in the
limited list that will eventually be agreed with delegations interested in the Dominican Republic's
foreign trade.  Initially, the list includes 31 s ubheadings broken down into eight digits in the
Harmonized System of tariff nomenclature, which together account for 40 per cent of total customs
revenue.  The arguments on which this request is based are attached.G/C/W/286
Page 2
BASES FOR THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC'S REQUEST
FOR THE APPLICATION OF MINIMUM PRICES
I. BACKGROUND
When the Dominican Republic joined the WTO, and consequently the Customs Valuation
Agreement, it invoked Article 20:1 of the Agreemen t, which allowed it to delay application of the
Agreement's provisions for a period of five years until 9 March 2000.
Subsequently, on 3 March 2000, the WTO Customs Valuation Committee decided to approve
the Dominican Republic's request for a reservation pursuant to paragraph 1 of Annex III to the
Customs Valuation Agreement, under which it obtained an extension until 1 July 2001, as can be seenfrom document G/VAL/22 of 10 March 2000.
The Dominican Republic is now submitting a request for a reservation for minimum prices
for a limited number of products during a period of two years, pursuant to paragraph 2 of Annex III to
the WTO Agreement on Customs Valuation.
II. GROUNDS FOR THE REQUEST
The Dominican Republic has complied with the decisions of the Committee on Customs
Valuation and has made considerable efforts to reform and modernize its customs administration.  The
reports by the technical assistance group that worked in the Dominican Republic, as well as visits byWTO experts, and experts who are currently working on the application of the new computer
programme, underline the efforts made, the Dominican Republic's interest and its strong commitment
to making progress in complying with its international commitments.
In this respect, we should emphasize that Article 6 of Law 147 of December 2000, which
contains the tariff reform, reaffirms the legal applicability of the WTO customs valuation as the
official methodology for customs valuation.  Textually, this Article states that, "Article VII of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) of 1994 shall apply to the valuation of goods that
are the subject of foreign trade".
At the same time, the macroeconomic indicators  in the Dominican Republic reflect a situation
of fragile financial stability caused by the combined action of high petroleum prices, the decrease inglobal economic growth, especially in the United States and the European Union, as well as the
impact of the tariff and tax reforms approved in December 2000.  The Dominican Republic's degree
of openness makes it very susceptible to variations in the global economy.
In such a context, it is essential for the Government to maintain its revenue-generating
capacity at a time when tariffs are being lowered, there is a decline in international demand for the
Dominican Republic's exports and, as a result, a reduction in its growth rate.  One fundamental
element in maintaining our revenue-generating capacit y is to keep a limited list of products subject to
minimum import prices for a transitional period.
The products which it is proposed should benefit from the exemption under paragraph 2 of
Annex III are those of the greatest importance for total customs revenue and subject to payment of
tariffs of 8 per cent or more.  Together, these products provide 40 per cent of total customs revenue.
They have been identified by breaking down the list of eight-digit tariff subheadings in the
Harmonized System of tariff nomenclature.G/C/W/286
Page 3
It should be added that, since 1 July 2001, the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement has been
applied  to all tariff headings.  Moreover, preshipment inspection services are not used and there is no
plan to do so for the purposes of customs valuation.
In addition, we apply paragraph 2 of the Decision on the Valuation of Carrier Media Bearing
Software for Data Processing Equipment and have met the requirement to submit progress reports in
September 2000 and February 2001 so the Committee on Customs Valuation has been able to follow
the efforts we are making to reform and modernize the customs administration.
We hope that the arguments put forward are sufficient to enable the Members of the WTO to
accede to our request for a waiver.
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