EPA Review Annex Documents - DFID

more conservative approach for trade negotiations. During this process the DR did not
participate in the internal debates due to the fact that the CRNM was considered a
CARICOM and not a CARIFORUM institution.
3. The Dominican Republic Trade Negotiation Processes
a. Dominican Republic Negotiating Background
For the DR the previous negotiating processes played an important part in shaping the
structure of the EPA negotiations at a national as well as at a regional level. In the period
of over two years that the EPA negotiators met, the DR participated vigorously, both with
public officials and with private sector representatives.
In order to understand the participative nature of Dominican institutions (both public and
private) in the EPA process, it is important to contextualise the experiences of the past.
The DR, as an island, during the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s played a passive
role in trade negotiations. With the culmination of the Uruguay Round, and the thrive of
globalisation; the DR recognised late in the game that it did not thoroughly follow the
market access commitments of the Round. Therefore after its conclusion, it was
probably one of the few countries in the world that after signing at Marrakech began a
process of renegotiation its market access commitments, in particularly with regards to
seven sensitive agricultural products. 118 This process in the DR was known as the
“technical rectification” of the Uruguay Round, as was a very much publicised, with
political connotations, denouncing that the agricultural sector of the country was not
properly defended in the negotiations. The technical minister of the President, in charge
of the Uruguay Round, was later removed from his post in part due to the outrage.
After this incident, both public officials and organised private businesses followed a
closer track to the trade negotiations. Although more than 15 years have passed, the
ghost of the “technical rectification” is still present in the mind of many Dominican
negotiators and agricultural sector officials.
This incident produced changes in the structure and organisation of the Dominican
negotiating team and the way it interacts with the civil society, in particular with private
business organisations.
b. Organisation of the Dominican Republic negotiating Structure
In the DR the National Commission of Trade Negotiations (CNNC) has primary
responsibility for developing and coordinating trade policy. It was established under the
Presidential Decree No 74-99, as an interagency trade policy mechanism for trade
negotiation and implementation.
The CNNC is headed, and coordinated, by the Secretary of the Foreign Affairs (SEREX).
It is composed of different Government (GODR) agencies and offices, responsible for
developing and coordinating negotiations on international trade and trade related issues.
These Institutions are primarily:
118 Milk, sugar, onion, garlic, beans, poultry, and rice.
157