Between 2019 and 2021, the 99% of the rice imports from Dominican Republic came from the United States and the remaining 1% from another 15 countries, reports the Regulatory Commission for Unfair Trade Practices and Safeguard Measures. Instead, Haiti is he biggest receiver external of the Dominican cereal.
According to the Trade Map world trade database, since the entry into force in 2007 of the Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Central America and the Dominican Republic (DR-Caftafor its acronym in English), from the North American country arrived, on average, the 96% of the dollar value of the rice imported to Quisqueya.
The government seeks negotiate the total elimination of tariffs customs or tax relief rice from 2025, within the framework of the DR-Caftawhen national production is 14.5 million quintals per year and local consumption is 12.4 million, meaning that the nation is self-sufficient.
According to Trade Map, between 2017 and 2021, they were imported from the United States, on average, 31,138.4 tons of rice each yearwhen the Ministry of Agriculture reports that, in general, 31,488.81 tons per year were brought, on average.
The “solution” to the difficult negotiation
once the rice imported from the United States pay zero duty, domestic producers fear that is sold at a lower price than that grown locally, displaces them from the market and collapse of the rice industry.
The President of the Republic, Luis Abinader, insists that will not open the market to US grain, despite the reduction established in the agreement signed in 2004 and ratified by the National Congress. this posture is considered populist by analysts, who warn that it could affect the country’s reputation for legal security.
Given the difficult scenario to renegotiate tariffs -because the other signatory countries must agree and the United States has already notified that it does not support it-, analysts propose a solution: economic incentives.
The economist Luis Manuel Piantini, who was ambassador to the World Trade Organization, recommends work with a series of instruments that support the producer in their costs to reduce them, such as financing, in such a way that it can face competition when the opening of the market begins. rice American.
“It’s the only option that I see now”, he said yesterday during a television interview. Remember that the United States subsidizes producers of rice.
“The United States Government supports its producers of rice through direct subsidiesbased on production, prices and the surface of cultivated land”, observed the former Minister of Energy and Mines, Antonio Isa Conde.
He rice It’s cheaper in the Dominican Republic
The Dominican Merchants Federation considers it prudent that the government extend its support to the rice sector so that it can shield the supply with higher quality and more competitive prices.
García, its president, indicated that it oscillates between 26 and 27 pesos per pound of the rice local and in some 30 pesos the imported from United States. “This indicates that the country has a quality product, at a competitive price,” she added.
However, he notified that the rice growers increased 150 pesos at the price of the bag for sale to shops. “Before we bought the bag of rice to 2,850 pesos and now to 3,000 pesos, a minimal increase that will be reflected in retail sales with a rise of one peso and twenty cents,” he specified.
Despite the rise, the price of rice is cheaper in the country than in the United States, which is located, on average, at 1.61 and 3.77 dollars per kilogram, respectively.
