United States urges Dominican Republic to repeal rice tariffs

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) has called on Dominican President Luis Abinader to repeal Decree 693-24, which imposes a 99% tariff on rice imports to protect domestic production. The USTR maintains that this measure violates market access obligations established under the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA).

Carlos Segura Foster, former administrator of the Agricultural Bank, described the decree as a “metida de pata” (blunder), arguing that the government is obligated to repeal it because previous legislation had already eliminated these tariffs. He noted that while 49% of rice imported during the current administration came from the U.S., shipments from Asia and Uruguay entered with zero tariffs.

Separately, the Dominican Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and MSMEs has implemented a unified Mercantile Registry across the country's 32 chambers of commerce. This digital initiative, titled “Empresas 24h,” aims to standardize business registration processes, allowing entrepreneurs to obtain a National Taxpayer Registry (RNC) in less than 24 hours to improve legal certainty and attract foreign investment.