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Agreement establishing the Free Trade Area Between
the Caribbean Community and the Dominican Republic
ANNEX I: AGREEMENT ON TRADE IN GOODS
ARTICLE I - COVERAGE
The Parties agree that the
conditions under which goods covered by this Agreement will be traded in the
Free Trade Area are set out in this Annex.
ARTICLE II - DEFINITIONS
Except as provided herein, words
and phrases shall have the meaning ascribed to them in the relevant Agreements of the WTO.
Competent Authority - The authority
which, in conformity with the legislation of the Parties, is responsible for
the administration of their customs tariff laws and
regulations.
Customs Tariff -
Any tariff, tax or duty levied on imports and of any type applied
to the importation of goods, including any form of surcharge or
additional charge on imports, except any equivalent charge or
internal tax established in conformity with Article III.2 of the
GATT 1994. This definition of a customs tariff does not include
taxes or duties of lighterage, wharfage, storage and handling of
merchandise, nor any others as may be required for port, custody
or transport services; nor does it include exchange rate
differences or other measures adopted by any Party.
Duties - Customs
duties and any other charges of equivalent effect which are
discriminatory in their application, whether fiscal, monetary, or
of any kind, which are applied to imports. Rates and analogous
charges where they represent the cost of the services rendered are
not included in this concept of "duties".
Goods - Any materials or finished articles.
Identical Goods - Goods whose characteristics all coincide with those
of the good it is compared.
Indirect Material - A good used in the production, verification or
inspection of a good, but which is not physically incorporated into
the latter; or a good used in the maintenance of buildings or the
operation of equipment related to the production of a good.
ARTICLE III -
MARKET ACCESS
The Parties agree to promote a programme of trade liberalisation
between them, at the same time taking into account, in particular, the
differences in the levels of development between the Dominican
Republic and the LDCs of CARICOM.
2. Each Party agrees to grant goods produced in the territory of the
other Party access to its market under the following arrangements:
(i) the goods originating in Member States of CARICOM
which satisfy the conditions contained in the Rules of Origin that appear as Appendix I to
this Annex shall
receive the following treatment on entry into the market of the Dominican Republic:
(a) duty-free access for all goods other than those
set out in Appendices II and III;
(b) phased reduction of the Most Favoured Nation
(MFN) rate of duty on goods as set out in Appendix II;
(c) the application of the
MFN rate of duty to those goods as set out in Appendix III;
(ii) the goods originating in the Dominican Republic
which satisfy the conditions contained in the Rules of
Origin shall receive the following treatment on entry
into the markets of CARICOM Member States:
(a) duty-free access for all goods other than those
set out in Appendices IV and V on entry into the
markets of the MDCs;
(b) phased reduction of the MFN rate of duty on goods as set out in Appendix IV
on entry into the markets of the MDCs;
(c) application of the MFN rate of duty on those goods set out in Appendix V on
entry into the markets of the MDCs;
(d) application of the MFN
rate of duty on all goods on entry into the markets on the LDCs.
3. The Lists of goods will be reciprocal unless the Parties agree
otherwise.
4. The LDCs shall not be required to extend the treatment
provided for in paragraph 2(ii)(a) and (b) to products originating in the
Dominican Republic on entry into their territories up to 2005. A review of
the provisions of this paragraph will be undertaken by the Parties in 2004.
5. The Parties agree that they will not apply any quantitative restrictions with
respect to the trade under this Agreement, always taking into account the
obligations that the CARICOM Member States have under the Treaty Establishing
the Caribbean Community. In this context, the Parties agree that any products
affected will be placed on the MFN List pending any specific arrangements which
might be negotiated.
6. The Council may consider any request by the Parties
for the modification of the Lists at Appendices II to V.
7. The Parties agree that
CARICOM entrepreneurs, both natural and legal persons, shall, in the Dominican
Republic, be allowed to promote or to manage the import, sale, rent or any other
form of traffic or sale of merchandise or products of CARICOM origin, either as
agents, representatives, commission agents, exclusive distributors, licensees or
under any other nomenclature, on the same basis as nationals of the Dominican.
Republic.
ARTICLE IV - RULES OF ORIGIN
The Rules of Origin to be applied under this Annex shall be those set out in
Appendix Ï.
ARTICLE V - TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE
The Parties agree to apply the provisions of Appendix VI on Technical Barriers to Trade.
ARTICLE VI - SANITARY AND PHYTO-SANITARY MEASURES
The Parties agree to apply the provisions
of Appendix VII on Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Measures.
ARTICLE VII - GENERAL EXCEPTIONS
Nothing in this Agreement shall prevent
the adoption or enforcement by the Dominican Republic or any Member
State of CARICOM of measures:
(i) which are necessary -
(a) to protect public morals;
(b) to prevent crime or the
maintenance of public order;
(c) to protect its essential security
interests;
(d) to protect human, animal and plant
life ;
(e) to secure compliance with laws or
regulations
which are not consistent with the provisions of this, Agreement, including those
relating to customs enforcement, the enforcement of monopolies
operated under paragraph 4 of Article II and Article XVII of GATT 1994, the protection of patents, trademarks and
copyrights and the prevention of deceptive practices;
(f) and essential to the acquisition or distribution of products in
general or local short supply; provided that any such measure shall be consistent with the principle that the Parties
are entitled to an equitable share of the international supply of such products, and that
any such measures, which are inconsistent with the other provisions of the Agreement,
shall be discontinued as soon as the conditions giving rise to them have ceased to
exist;
(ii) which relate to -
(a) gold or silver production or trade;
(b) the products of prison labour;
(c) the preservation of the environment and the
conservation of natural resources; and
(iii) which are imposed for the protection of national
treasures of artistic, historical, anthropological,
paleaontological or archaeological value.
ARTICLE VIII -
TRADE PROMOTION
The Parties agree to:
(i) establish trade promotion programmes;
(ii) facilitate the activities of official and private trade
missions;
(iii) organise fairs and expositions; and
(iv) promote the continuous exchange of information, market
studies and activities leading to the maximum
utilisation of opportunities offered by the liberalisation
of trade between the Parties.
ARTICLE IX - BILATERAL SAFEGUARD MEASURES
The Dominican Republic and
the Member States of CARICOM acknowledge that, as Members of the
WTO, they have recourse to the Agreement on Safeguards in the
WTO.
2. The Member States of
CARICOM and the Dominican Republic may apply bilateral safeguard
measures of a temporary nature when:
(i) imports of
products from any Member State of CARICOM or the
Dominican Republic are made in such quantities that such
products cause serious injury or threat of serious
injury to the domestic industry producing like or
directly competitive products of the importing country;
(ii) it is necessary
to redress balance-of-payment deficits or to protect the
external financial position of the importing country.
3. Safeguard measures shall
consist of the temporary suspension of the tariff preferences and
the reinstatement of the MFN duties for the specific product.
4. Safeguard measures shall be applied for an initial period of
no longer than one year. This term may be renewed for no more than one
year, if the causes that motivated the imposition of the safeguard measure
persist.
5. The importing country seeking to impose or renew any
safeguard measure shall request a meeting of the Council in order to have
consultations on the imposition or renewal of such measures. This
imposition or renewal does not require consensus.
ARTICLE X -
UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES
Where there is evidence of injury, material injury, threat of injury or material
injury to the domestic industry of a Party due to unfair trade
practices such as export subsidies and dumping, that Party may apply corrective
measures, provided the application of these measures is in conformity with the
Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures and the Agreement on the
Implementation of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994.
ARTICLE XI -
ANTI-COMPETITIVE BUSINESS PRACTICES
The Parties will seek to discourage anti-competitive business practices in the
Free Trade Area and work towards the adoption of common provisions to prevent
such practices.
2. The Parties will undertake to establish mechanisms aimed at facilitating and
promoting competition policy provisions and ensuring their application among
and within the Parties.
ARTICLE XII -
CUSTOMS COOPERATION
The Parties,
through their Customs authorities, agree to:
(i) strengthen their bonds of cooperation and mutual assistance to
resolve any differences in relation to the administration of this
Agreement;
(ii) stimulate as much as possible the
practices, procedures, terms and conditions of mutual assistance as well as to intensify the
relationships
between themselves with the aim of sharing
experiences that may improve and
harmonise the systems and customs procedures
applicable, based on the principle of reciprocity; and
(iii) strengthen the
cooperation through mechanisms that may speed up the
movement of goods and clearance through customs; without
prejudice to the application of necessary measures and
controls to avoid illegal trade and other practices that
cause distortions to international trade.
2. The Parties will facilitate the release of
all originating merchandise in conformity with the measures and
procedures agreed, after the entry into force of this Agreement.
3. The Parties will give priority to the areas of harmonisation
of customs procedures, computer technology and
training.
4. The Parties will simplify and
make available to the trading community information on procedures
for the international transit of goods, the required documentation,
the mode of transport, the customs operation schedule, and
information on the established sea ports and airports.
5.
(i) Each party, through its customs authorities, shall
speedily release the goods originating in the other Party that
enter its territory. In order to facilitate the clearance of
goods originating in the other Party, automatic controls for
time of stay, selective or aleatory criteria for revision,
weight control, physical verification of the goods and direct
release to importers shall be applied.
(ii) The Parties agree to simplify
documents needed for the transit of originating goods in accordance
with the national legislation of the importing Party.
(iii) Each Party, in conformity with its
legislation, shall inform the other of procedures that will
facilitate and speed up the release of goods, including the
requirements for importation and entry to the territory of the Party.
6. The Customs authorities of the Parties will exchange,
where possible, and subject to domestic legislation and regulations
relating to confidentiality, information and experience on:
(i) Classification and Customs Valuation;
(ii) Rules of Origin;
(iii) documents and requirements for the import and
export of goods;
(iv) general or specific statistics of imports and
exports;
(v) goods subject to non-tariff measures;
(vi) the customs regimes and procedures;
(vii) the current domestic legislation relating to import taxes,
customs and port charges, and any subsequent amendments;
(viii) new technologies for preventing and detecting
customs fraud;
(ix) new trends in customs infractions.
7. Without prejudice to the provisions of other
agreements, upon entry into force of this Agreement, each Party agrees to notify
the customs authorities of the other Party of any intention to implement new
customs regulations.
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