The authorities Dominicans would be racing against the clock to present the producers of rice and millers the relevant measures to prevent a collapse of their agricultural activity due to the entry of a rice free tariffs from the United States starting in 2025, as provided for in the Treaty of Free Trade between the Dominican Republic, the United States and Central America (DR-CAFTA).
Three months before this materializes, the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Mipymes (MICM), Víctor Bisonó, reported that “consultations were exhausted” with the authorities Americans regarding a renegotiation of this part of the treatyrecalling that this requires the decision of the signatory Central American countries and that the agreement cannot be modified bilaterally.
“By November, the president of the Dominican Republic will be enabled for protect to the producers nationals as it should be,” Bisonó said yesterday during his speech at LA Semanal with the press led by President Luis Abinader in New York.
Rice farmers speak
The Commission Interministerial of the Rice –created in February 2023 by presidential order to give priority to the issue– promised the rice growers to make public the alternative proposals to what was stipulated in the DR-CAFTA no later than November 30 of this year, he confirmed to Diario Free Herald Serum.
“So still not even we, as sector productiveWe have the solution, the way out or the conclusion of the issue in our hands, but we know that progress is being made,” said Suero, executive director of the Dominican Association of Factories (Adofa) and who participates in the meetings as a representative of the millers.
Still, he said he remained confident that the authorities are committed to submitting proposals aimed at “protect” the production national rice field, in which more than 32,000 people are involved producers and which injected more than RD$45,000 million into the national economy in 2023 alone.
To the producers They urgently need to have information objective on how it is going to be proceedhe recalled president of the National Federation of Producers of Rice (Fenarroz), Marcelo Reyes.
“The rice-growing areas of Montecristi begin the sowing in the first days of November, and starting the harvest without a clear direction is complicated“, he pointed out to Diario Free within the framework of the XXVI Meeting of Leaders of the Agricultural Sector.
11.84 %
Preferential tariff rate on rice imports from the United States in 2024.
He DR-CAFTA it’s a treaty of free trade which the Dominican Republic sought to join voluntarily, and which came into force in the country in 2007.
This agreement gave a term 20 years old before the execution from a calendar of relief gradual for the rice imported from the United States, a period that passed without any efforts being made to renegotiate this rateBisonó stressed.
In 2020, the rate tariff was 59.40%, which has been progressively decreasing until to reach 11.88% in 2024.
Suspend meeting
The minister of AgricultureLimber Cruz, announced earlier this month that the Commission Interministerial of the Rice I would make another meeting to continue the talks with the actors involved, on the measures to be taken.
When consulted yesterday by this medium, Cruz reported that the meeting had to be postponed and he is waiting to be informed when it will be rescheduled starting next week.
He assured that this has not stopped the Ministry of Agricultureas the main authority on agricultural policy in the country, develop plans to promote productivity, with the inclusion of improved seeds and the incorporation of new technologies that increase cereal yield per task.
Suero confirms that, within the framework of the committee meetings, there have been treaty proposals for improve the production ranging from the mechanization of farms rice cookers to fumigation with drones.
Adofa reported that the factories currently have 5.4 million tons of rice in inventory, an amount that “is enough and more than enough” for up to eight months of consumption, which would allow the price of the product to remain stable, Suero added.
Even so, the miller understands that any entry of imported rice without a plan to protect the local market would be “dramatic” for national production. “In a matter of months, May, June and July of next year, the effects would be felt, because they flood the market,” he warned, after emphasizing that the United States has the advantage of subsidizing its producers to make them more competitive. Adofa reported that the factories currently have 5.4 million rice in inventory, an amount that “gives and more” for up to eight months of consumption, which would allow the price stability of the product to be maintained, Suero added.
