He clarified that plantain imports are allowed in a free market and the only restriction is a tariff of 20 percent for all countries except those within the Free Trade of Central America and Dominican Republic (DR-CAFTA), which is 6 percent.
Rodriguez said the only permit that the Ministry of Agriculture grants is the non health objection one, when plantain comes from a disease-free zone. He explained that the agricultural authorities do everything they can so that no disease or pest enters the Dominican territory.
He recalled that during CAFTA negotiations, plantain fell in the C basket, ie having a 20% linear reduction of tariff in 10 years, so the musacea from Central America under this agreement would pay around 6%.
Minister Rodriguez said that domestic consumption of plantain is six million units per day. After the devastation that occurred in the South due to the effects of storms Isaac and Sandy, more than 207,000 hectares of Musaceae which were in the production got lost.
He highlighted the efforts of the authorities to restore agricultural production, but said it will be in April when they will restore to normal the production that the country consumes.
