BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - SOME CRITICS of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) may wonder why it is that the Dominican Republic’s repeated request to access membership of our regional economic integration movement is yet to get a positive response.
A quick, short answer could perhap be in one word – trade! With the exception of Trinidad and Tobago, which continues to market itself as “the gateway” to Latin America – an objective analysis would confirm reservations by CARICOM member states on being seriously disadvantaged with the removal of the Common External Tariff to facilitate the Dominican Republic as a new member of the current group of 15 – without adjustment measures.
Reasonable, as it appears, therein lies a contradiction. For, like member states of CARICOM, the Dominican Republic is also a signatory to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU). Indeed, the EU negotiators were quite eager to have the Dominican Republic in the EPA, consistent with their own strategies to also access the much wider Latin America market.