Propuesta de Reformas Legales para Implementar el Reembolso de Aranceles en el Marco del CAFTA-DR en República Dominicana

The proposal was developed by Juan Luis Zúñiga for Chemonics International Inc. in April 2009. The CAFTA-DR trade agreement was signed on August 5, 2004, by the Dominican Republic, Central America, and the United States. The agreement entered into force for El Salvador on March 1, 2006, for Honduras and Nicaragua on April 1, 2006, for Guatemala on July 1, 2006, and for the Dominican Republic on March 1, 2007. In Costa Rica, the CAFTA-DR was approved through a referendum on October 7, 2007, and entered into force on January 1, 2009. The USAID/San Salvador regional office signed a contract with Chemonics International on December 1, 2006, to implement the Regional Trade Program CAFTA-DR (CRT). The program aimed to support the governments of the CAFTA-DR signatory countries in implementing the agreement's requirements, particularly those related to: * Chapter 4: Rules of Origin and Origin Procedures * Chapter 5: Customs Administration * Chapter 19: Trade Capacity Building * International agreements and conventions on trade facilitation The evaluation of compliance exercises revealed that there were differences in the levels of compliance among the CAFTA-DR signatory countries regarding the refund of any duty paid in excess due to the importer not making the preferential tariff treatment request at the time of importation. This is specified in the treaty in Article 4.15.5, which states that each party shall provide that when a good was originally imported into its territory but the importer did not make a request for preferential tariff treatment at the time of importation, the importer may, no later than one year after the date of importation, make a request for preferential tariff treatment and request a refund of any duty paid in excess. The article requires the importer to submit to the customs authority: * A written declaration stating that the good was originally imported * A written or electronic copy of the certification, if a certification is the basis of the request, or other information demonstrating that the good was originally imported * Other documentation related to the importation of the goods, as required by the customs authority The proposed activity under this consultancy aims to work in coordination and jointly with the customs authorities of the Dominican Republic to develop a proposal for a regulatory framework on the provisions related to refunds, in order to seek its implementation to ensure the faithful compliance with the obligations of the Treaty. The consultancy will focus on developing a proposal for a regulatory framework necessary to implement Article 4.15.5 regarding the refund of any duty paid in excess due to the importer not making the preferential tariff treatment request at the time of importation of the goods into the territory of the Dominican Republic. The current regulatory framework in the Dominican Republic is based on the Ley No. 3489, of February 14, 1953, "Ley para el Régimen de las Aduanas" (Law for the Customs Regime), which assigns to the General Directorate of Customs (DGA) the liquidation and collection of customs revenues. Additionally, through Law No. 226-06, the DGA was granted legal personality and functional, budgetary, administrative, technical, and patrimonial autonomy. The Article 1 of that Law No. 226-06 provided that the DGA would have the quality of a public entity with its own legal personality, functional autonomy, budgetary, administrative, technical, and patrimonial autonomy. It also regulates its structure and functioning, and it has the capacity to acquire rights and contract obligations, to perform acts and exercise mandates provided for in the law and its regulations. The customs authorities are also governed by the following: 1. The provisions of Law No. 3489, of February 14, 1953, for the Customs Regime, and its modifications, whenever they are not contrary to the provisions contained in that law. 2. The Law No. 11-92, of May 16, 1992, which approves the Dominican Republic's Tax Code, in what refers exclusively to resources and procedural jurisdiction. 3. Other regulations and legal provisions for its functioning. The Law modified Article 30 of the Tax Code to provide that the administration of taxes and the application of this Code and other tax laws falls to the General Directorates of Internal Taxes and Customs, who, for the purposes of this Code, will be denominated in common the Tax Administration. In the matter of refunds, it is worth noting that there are diverse provisions in the Tax Code, and, due to Article 1 of that Code, it is interpreted that those provisions are not applicable in the customs area and to duties.