WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(98)/ST/117
20 May 1998
(98-2179)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Second Session
Geneva, 18 and 20 May 1998Original:  Spanish
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Statement Circulated by His Excellency Mr. Luis Manuel Bonetti Veras,
Secretary of State for Industry and Trade
I. Introduction
As a founding member of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1947), the
Dominican Republic is conscious of the crucial role of international trade in the development of
nations.  Our membership in the WTO is therefore recognition of a multilateral system thatstrengthens and increases access for its Members to international markets.  We repose faith and trust
in the ability of this body to intervene in th e international arena to guarantee equitable and
market-driven trade and trade discipline that will make for the optimum use of resources.
In the newly emerging international trading environment, we the developing countries have
had to institute the appropriate institutional change s to assure coherence in the trading system.  In
contrast, some developed countries have stepped up protectionist pressures in an attempt to retard
trade liberalization until they have secured reciprocal concessions through multilateral negotiations.
Just as the world and the international agenda have changed, we now have a body such as the
WTO, in constant renewal, which should recognize much more realistically the problems of
implementation of obligations and the exercise of the rights covered by the Agreements. In that samespirit, we must all do our part to ensure the effective functioning of the WTO.
II. Implementation of the Agreements
(a) Compliance with obligations between 1997 and 1998
Since the close of the Singapore Conference, the Dominican Republic has endeavoured to put
in place a foreign trade system that streamlines the operation of trade policy with a view to the proper
management of the agreements, conventions and treaties governing the trade in goods and services.
Efforts are continuing in that context to determin e what legal and institutional foreign trade reforms
are needed for the full application of the agreements of the Uruguay Round.
By Decree 140-97, the Executive Power created the Technical Commission for Foreign Trade
Reform, which upholds the principle of free trade and whose principal objective is to make customs
tariffs the sole instrument for regulating imports.  The Commission is made up of the principal bodiesconcerned with foreign trade and has been reviewing the legislation establishing non-tariff trade
barriers with a view to dismantling them.WT/MIN(98)/ST/117
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In that same connection and in order to eliminate needless administrative procedures and
practices connected with foreign trade, Decree 114-98 was promulgated in March of this year
suppressing non-tariff trade barriers introduced through presidential decrees or administrative
resolutions issued by government agencies.  This meant repealing 34 decrees or articles of decrees
that created obstacles to trade and prescribed import or export licensing in the Dominican Republicand 29 administrative resolutions passed by five government agencies that subjected as many products
to trade licensing.
Similarly the Congress of the Dominican Republic adopted the new General
Telecommunications Law, an instrument ratify ing the IV Protocol on Basic Telecommunications
annexed to the GATS.  This law signals the implementation in the Dominican Republic of the
commitments assumed with the signing of the "Reference Document" that emerged from WTO
negotiations on basic telecommunications, by introducing provisions on free competition,
interconnection, transparency in the allocation of scarce resources, among others.  The law upholds
the right to the unfettered provision of services and to free choice by users.
In pursuance of this trade liberalization process, the Government of the Dominican Republic
decided to emerge from its traditional isolation and actively seek closer regional ties with the closest
and most compatible schemes in the western hemisphere, being guided always by the concern to
strengthen and ensure the pre-eminence of multilate ral disciplines.  The Strategic Alliance proposed
by President Leonel Fernández at the Extraordinary Summit Meeting of Heads of State and of
Government of Central America, Belize and the Dominican Republic outlines the interest inestablishing a free trade area between the Caribbean and Central America, in line with the principles,
rights and obligations prescribed within the WTO framework.  The purpose of this Alliance is to
develop the region's production and technological capacity, to coordinate policies vis-à-vis
international bodies and to negotiate jointly in the establishment of the Free Trade Area of the
Americas (FTAA).
Our country took a first step in the direction of this Alliance by signing a free trade agreement
with Central America on 16 April 1998.  That agreement, which covers trade in goods and services
and investment, is a modern, third-generation agreement that contemplates immediate reciprocal trade
liberalization for the entire tariff universe, barring a short list of products to be gradually made subject
to free trade.
Likewise, negotiations are well advanced with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) for
the conclusion of a free trade agreement with the countries of that integration scheme.  It has been
agreed that the accord will cover the three areas of trade, services and investments, with a negative list
of sensitive products.
(b) Exercise of rights
Countries were able to incorporate the Uruguay Round agreements into their domestic
legislation because they had made a positive assessment of the balance of the rights and obligations
struck in the agreements resulting from that ambitious round of negotiations.
It would be desirable not to limit the evaluation of implementation of Uruguay Round
Agreements merely to national compliance with the commitments, but to focus equally on pinpointing
the problems confronting countries, especially developing ones, in availing themselves of the rights
enshrined in these agreements.
Indeed, it would be worthwhile at this pre-negotiation stage to ascertain that the transitional
safeguards concerning textiles have not been used with the discretion stipulated in the Agreement on
Textiles and Clothing, but instead have been employed against countries benefiting under theWT/MIN(98)/ST/117
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preferential trade regime, without proper justification.  Only in a handful of cases has it been possible
to remedy the situation thanks to the intervention of the Dispute Settlement Body, an indication of
appreciable shortcomings in the functioning of the Textiles Monitoring Body.
We observe with equal disquiet that none of the rights accorded to developing countries to
increase their participation in the trade in serv ices has produced the hoped-for results.  We are
persuaded that if all the service sectors departed from the traditional sector-by-sector approach
followed hitherto and instead made common cause  in the negotiations, we would achieve more
balanced results and hence greater effective participation by developing countries.  This should be the
subject of in-depth study leading ultimately to co mmitments on liberalization, technology transfer and
access to networks that would effectively increase the participation of developing countries.
Discussions on agriculture invariably address compliance with the measures envisaged in the
Ministerial Decision on the possible negative effects of the reform programme on least-developed and
net-food-importing developing countries.  Although compliance with this Decision is a commitment
assumed under the Agreement on Agriculture, 49 m onths on from the Ministerial Conference of
Marrakesh, it has yet to be implemented.
Even more difficult than all of the foregoin g will be attaining the development objectives
built into the Marrakesh Agreement and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS), at the end of the transi tion periods accorded to developing countries.
We are also disquieted by the potential negative implications for the least-developed
economies of the full implementation of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures in
2003, whereupon it will no longer be possible to grant investment incentives in export sectors.  We
the Members of the WTO must use this very meeting to begin to gauge just what the suppression of
such an incentive could mean for the pace of overall growth and for migration flows.
III. Future agenda
Discussion of the scope of future negotiations got under way only during the phase
preparatory to this Second Ministerial Conference.  Nevertheless, in dealing with this subject, it would
be well for us to be mindful of Ministerial Decisi ons adopted in other fora.  One recent example that
is relevant to any future decision to be taken in this connection is the IV Joint Ministerial Declarationof San Jose.  That Declaration states that the Agreement Establishing the Free Trade Area of the
Americas (FTAA) will be a single comprehensive undertaking embodying a balance of the rights and
obligations of the parties and that for its entry into force nothing will be negotiated until everything
has been agreed.  We should again be aspiring towards a standard no less ambitious within the WTO.
As a developing country we are keen on working out a positive agenda that is not limited to
the traditional trade-related issues.  But even in  this latter connection we must recognize the
adjustments being made by our peoples as a result of globalization.
On the subject of agriculture, the extent of trade liberalization is of vital importance to our
countries.  Our principal export products need greater market access than hitherto.  The gradual
reduction of domestic assistance in developed countries stipulated in the Agreement on Agriculture
has lagged behind the timetable envisaged in the Ag reement.  Turning to the Agreement on Sanitary
and Phytosanitary Measures, we would urge that such measures should not become protectionist
barriers that restrict market access for products in the sector.
As regards services, we envisage the review of the relevant Agreement and greater
liberalization in that sector, the formulation of new standards and disciplines and the promotion of
efficiency and competitiveness.  We have every confidence that a well-defined negotiating frameworkWT/MIN(98)/ST/117
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will be drawn up, which will pave the way for increased participation of developing countries in the
trade in services.
Aware of the complexities and imbalances in hering in negotiations in other fora, the
Dominican Republic actively advocated the inclusion of the topic of investment in the agendas of boththe WTO and UNCTAD.  Thanks to the insightful decisions taken at Midrand and Singapore, the
work done on this topic has been fruitful and mutually supportive. It is nonetheless necessary to wind
up the period given to the WTO working group to gauge the opinions of all the countries as to the
future treatment of this topic.  It would be desirable for a possible multilateral agreement on
investment to be negotiated in a universal forum su ch as the WTO, a meeting place for the interests of
all the parties concerned by such a momentous body of rules.
The Dominican Republic would urge that future negotiations should recognize and give
adequate attention to the problems peculiar to economically weak and vulnerable countries so that
special and differential treatment can be extended to them, together with the technical assistance
required to enable them to improve their producti on, international competitiveness and market access
conditions.
In this regard, we reiterate our principled endorsement of the accomplishments of the working
groups on trade and investments and on competition policies.  In regard to the more sensitive topics
such as labour standards and the environment, we reaffirm our support for what was agreed at the
Ministerial Conference at Singapore.
In short, we hope that the next round of negotiations set to start in 1999 will reflect a balance
of rights and obligations amongst all WTO Members and that it will foster the growth and prosperity
of all countries.
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