Trade practices and productivity improvement project

The project, to be managed from within the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency, will: (1) reform trade regulations, and (2) enhance productivity by providing management and basic skills training to new export firms. The first component will support business, legal, regulatory, judicial, and labor reforms aimed at establishing internationally accepted standards related to trade and investment. TA and training will be provided in four areas. (1) The U.S. Customs Service will assist the Dominican Customs Service in drafting an updated Customs Law and related regulations, and in developing workplans to improve merchandise verification and release procedures, as well as administrative and personnel systems; follow-on TA may be provided to implement the workplans. (2) Agencies such as the U.S. Trade and Patents Office and the Library of Congress will assist public and private Dominican agencies concerned with protecting intellectual property rights in: drafting new copyright, patent, and trademark laws and legislation (particularly those related to books, sound recordings, and software); improving systems for registration and filing of applications for copyrights, patents, and trademarks; and educating academic and business sectors and lawyers regarding intellectual property rights. (3) Assistance will be provided by the U.S. Department of Labor to the Dominican Arbitration and Conciliation Council (CAC) and the Ministry of Labor to strengthen existing arbitration mechanisms and encourage wider private sector use of arbitration (including international arbitration) in matters involving intellectual property rights, commercial contracts, and labor-management relations. (4) A variety of Dominican public and private agencies will be assisted by the USDA and other agencies in developing uniform codes of product and workplace standards. Specific targets are, inter alia, to: upgrade inspection facilities, including those for beef; address constraints in meeting international sanitary and phytosanitary standards; improve Dominican ability to verify compliance with health and safety standards in the workplace; and train regional and local inspectors in international standards for industry, food quality, and occupational health. The second component will provide training and TA in management methods and human resource development to the private and public sectors in order to improve productivity, labor-management relations, technology transfer, and basic skills. Activities will include: a U.S. internship program to train 20 Dominicans as local management consultants on productivity; industrial relations training for plant supervisors; TA to improve the productivity of skilled workers and support adult basic education in the workplace for unskilled workers; and a gender awareness program to demonstrate the potential productivity benefits of hiring women. Activities under this component will be coordinated by a Productivity Enhancement Team to be established within one of the country"s educational institutions. In all, some 3,065 persons will be trained, and 300 new export firms will benefit.