The Association of Wholesale Provision Merchants supported the government’s decision to establish a zero rate of tariffs on 67 products of the basic family basket, understanding that it will help reduce costs.
Julián Antonio Parra, president of the entity, considered that the initiative of President Luis Abinader is beneficial and timely, since it will have a favorable impact on consumers, mainly those with less purchasing power.
However, he understands that the government must establish mechanisms to prevent the objective of this measure from being distorted by intermediaries in the marketing chain of these products to be imported free of tariffs.
Parra also favored the guarantee of a balance or control in the importation of these items and agricultural producers to avoid damaging national production.
“We recognize that with this measure the government seeks to favor the population economically, but it has to be very careful because it should not be maintained for more than 5 or 6 months to avoid harming the local producer,” said the leader of organized trade.
He referred, however, that the release of the payment of tariffs on these food items, whose intention is to mitigate the upward scale in their prices, must be provisional, because if it is extended for a long time, it would be detrimental to national agricultural production.
He explained that although the two great crises that have impacted the world, the Covid-19 pandemic and now the war between Russia and Ukraine, have greatly impacted the prices of raw materials, including oil, in the Dominican case the establishment of zero tariff on products, it is no less true that support for local producers is required to avoid the collapse of agriculture.
He recalled that before these two great events, the country produced more than 70 percent of the main items of agricultural origin that the population demanded.
The project that authorizes the Executive Power to import tariff-free imports of 67 products was approved in two readings by the Chamber of Deputies and has already been empowered by the Senate Finance Commission.