USTR Joint Statement From The Meeting Of The Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Commission

WASHINGTON — January 23, 2012 — The following joint assertion was launched right now at the closing of
the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Totally free Trade Commission meeting in Miami,
Florida.

Anabel González, Minister of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica Yahaira Sosa representing the
Minister of Sector and Trade of the Dominican Republic Mario Roger Hernández, Vice Minister of
Economy for El Salvador Maria Luisa Flores, Vice Minister of Economic climate for Guatemala José Francisco
Zelaya, Secretary of State, Place of work of Business and Commerce for Honduras Cristian Martínez,
representing the Minister of Development, Market and Commerce of Nicaragua and Ambassador Miriam
Sapiro, Deputy United States Trade Representative for the United States are happy to release the
following Joint Statement, highlighting the perform attained at the 2nd assembly of the
Dominican Republic-Central The united states-United States (CAFTA-DR) Free of charge Trade Commission held on January
23, 2012, in Miami, Florida.

Rising Trade and Investment underneath CAFTA-DR
At the CAFTA-DR Totally free Trade Commission (FTC) assembly these days, as we approach the six-12 months
anniversary considering that the initial set of nations around the world carried out the Agreement, we yet again reaffirm our
obligation and shared objective of effective implementation of the Agreement. We understand that
chances for our corporations, farmers, ranchers, and employees are enhanced by full and accurate
implementation and ongoing assessment of the commercial and institutional provisions contained in the
CAFTA-DR Settlement (Settlement). Total implementation of the Arrangement will serve to foster occupation
creation and enhance the economic prosperity of all of our citizens.

We reviewed trade and economic flows inside the CAFTA-DR region. The Agreement
continues to deliver constructive outcomes and lead to important boosts in trade amid our
nations. Trade amongst the United States and the Central American partners and the
Dominican Republic seasoned substantial growth since we met very last yr in El Salvador, expanding
from $ 44 billion in the first eleven months of 2010 to $ 54 billion in the equal time period in the course of
2011, a 23 % enhance. Meanwhile, intra-regional trade among Central American nations around the world
and the Dominican Republic achieved $ 3.8 billion in the first fifty percent of 2011, which represented a
progress rate of 18 % in relation to the same period in 2010. We recognize the significance
of persevering with to encourage financial expansion and prosperity and commit to intensify our efforts towards
regional integration. We firmly believe the Agreement is important to facilitating sustainable,
wide-primarily based financial progress during our area and appear ahead to the implementation of trade
facilitation assignments that will market our region’s competitiveness.

The Agreement has been an essential catalyst in facilitating our competitiveness in the
world-wide environment. By working together to discover and handle ways to facilitate trade we
can improve efficiencies of enterprise operations, increase competitiveness, make new
opportunities and broaden and broaden the positive aspects of the Arrangement.

Concentrating on Implementation and Strengthening the Agreement
At our last meeting we agreed to a collection of adjustments to the Agreement’s rules of origin for
textiles and attire merchandise. We established that it is timely to contemplate attainable
modifications and updates to the Agreement’s principles of origin for non-textiles and non-attire
products. We set up an advertisement hoc working group beneath Report four.14 to take into account modifications of
the CAFTA-DR principles of origin and we instructed it to meet inside 60 times to initiate its operate.

We reviewed the development produced on updating the CAFTA-DR principles of origin to correspond to the
2012 modifications in the Harmonized Technique (HS) nomenclature and thanked the specialised authorities for their
work. We recognized the importance of this challenge in easing customs administration for our
customs authorities, producers, and exporters and instructed our specialised teams to conclude this
update for our signature in 60 times.

We commended the professionals for the function getting undertaken to update the special guidelines of origin
provided for in Appendix three.3.6 to correspond to the alterations in the HS nomenclature. We
stimulate the conclusion of this function as soon as attainable in accordance with paragraph 6 of the
Annex. When consultations are concluded and the function is finalized we appear ahead to promptly
adopting these changes.

With respect to the remuneration of panelists, assistants, specialists, and the fee of their
costs, we will satisfy by video clip convention on or just before February fifteen, 2012, to achieve an arrangement,
recognizing the importance of an productive dispute settlement treatment that makes certain each country´s
rights and benefits under the Treaty.

We reviewed the position of the implementation of the modifications to the textile and apparel
solution policies of origin and search forward to their implementation as soon as possible.

We understand the relevance of transparency and maintaining communication with
stakeholders. As we transfer forward, we will carry on to encourage an open up dialogue and use
mechanisms for receiving significant manifeste comment, as component of our motivation to general public
engagement.

Broadening and Deepening the Rewards and Trade Facilitation
To broaden and deepen the advantages of the Arrangement and produce new jobs in our
respective nations, at our very last assembly we agreed to cooperate on new initiatives. We
received a report from the Inter-American Improvement Traditional bank (IDB) on progress beneath the CAFTA-DR
Trade Facilitation Initiative, thanked them for their beneficial help and expressed our wish to
carry on this partnership. We look ahead to the CAFTA-DR Public-Private Sector Dialogue on
Trade Facilitation to be held tomorrow the following in Miami. This celebration will assist discover the
difficulties that the non-public sector faces to the productive circulation of trade and to exchanging views on
priorities and best methods in the regions of Customs and Trade Facilitation, Logistics and Furnish
Chains, and Technical Specifications. We thank the IDB for its function in organizing and arranging
this essential celebration and also thank the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin
The united states (AACCLA) for its cooperation. We have instructed our senior officials to meet up with by the stop of
the 2nd quarter of 2012 to take into account the adoption of a few concrete tasks and their roadmap
for implementation and express our interest in persevering with to obtain IDB’s help in their
identification and implementation. We acknowledged the work carried out so significantly by our technical
Committees on the priorities recognized in the Specialised Limitations to Trade (TBT) and Customs locations,
in specific the profitable TBT workshop with personal sector individuals held in Costa Rica in
early December 2011. We urge continuation of these efforts and search forward to figuring out
even more cooperative endeavors and to obtaining a report on progress at the subsequent Totally free Trade
Commission meeting.

To even more our assistance for the important function that modest- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
play in making employment in all of our international locations, we reviewed ongoing operate to support them just take gain
of opportunities beneath the Arrangement. We appreciated the update from the Middle for the
Marketing of the Micro and Small Enterprise in Central The us (CENPROMYPE) on the area-broad
sharing of region best methods for supporting modest organizations which find to interact in trade and
on joint efforts to create Development Centers (SBDCs) for Micro- and Tiny-Companies
through the area with the aim of linking to an on the internet trade help and info portal
for SBDC facilities and modest corporations in the United States at
http://www.SBDCglobal.com. We acknowledged the
intensified interaction between the entities accountable for SMEs in every single of our countries and the
strides in regional projects and ways to advance this initiative.

We thank the IDB for its assistance and assistance in producing a CAFTA-DR textile and apparel
Sourcing Directory to boost communication and sourcing amongst consumers and makers within
the region and its presentation on the sourcing directory. This collaborative hard work has
previously been instrumental in encouraging built-in offer chains, developing regional textiles trade,
helping producers in capitalizing on the benefits of the Arrangement, and general in growing the
competitiveness of our regional industry.

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