. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/1014 
31 March 2010 
 
 (10-1751) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   Spanish 
  
 
ACTIVITIES OF MEMBERS 
 
Statement by the Dominican Republic at the Meeting of 17 and 18 March 2010
 
  
 The following communication, received on 16 Marc h 2010, is being circulated at the request 
of the delegation of the Dominican Republic
. 
 
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1. The Dominican Republic wishes to inform th e Committee of progress achieved in the work 
aimed at improving the National System for the Use and Handling of Pesticides in the Dominican Republic and the Application of Good Agricultu ral Practices and Good Manufacturing Practices. 
2. The Ministry of Agriculture, through its Depa rtments of Plant Health and Agri-food Safety, 
has been working hard to supplement the register s of firms engaged in the sale of agrochemicals 
throughout the national territory, having notified th e representatives of these firms of the need for 
registration under Law No. 311-68 on pesticides and Regulation No. 322-88 thereto.  At the present 
time, 79 per cent of institutions elig ible to trade in pesticides in the Dominican Republic are registered 
and 21 per cent are in the process of obtaining registration. 
3. The new registers and the revised status of ag rochemical firms require that the products be 
used specifically for crops under conditions of sale authorized by a phytosanitary technical expert, on 
the basis of Ministry of Agriculture Resolution No. 50-2009, which prohibits and restricts certain 
active ingredients, in accordance with status of use, following mutually agreed national and 
international investigations. 
4. This work has been given further impetus by the establishment of the Programme on Oriental 
Plants and Fresh Fruits for Export (PROVOFEX), wi th the aim of monitoring agricultural products for 
export and domestic consumption.  In order to provide guidance on the monitoring of pests and 
agrochemicals to be used by producers, the pr ogramme establishes procedures for the determination 
of economic pest thresholds, together with a list of pesticides to be used for each crop, which is 
continuously updated.  It also has a team of tec hnicians for field work and professional inspectors for 
the inspection of packing plants, who work in c onjunction with plant quarantine personnel at ports 
and airports and are distributed among diagnostic la boratories and twenty-five (25) quarantine posts 
throughout the country. 
5. Furthermore, the pesticide residue laboratori es have been restructured and equipped;  
pursuant to a resolution of the Minister of Agricu lture, units have been set up to deal with quality 
assurance, pesticide residues in plants and fruits and formulated pesticides.  Tests are currently being 
conducted for the determina tion of pesticide residues and the qua lity of pesticide formulations, for 
certification and accreditation purposes. G/SPS/GEN/1014 
Page 2  
 
  6. Guidebooks and handboo ks on Good Agricultural Practices and Good Manufacturing 
Practices have been developed, and training has been given to the staff of the regional technical 
committees, known as COTERES;  moreover, technical da ta sheets have been pr oduced for a Register 
of Responsible Pesticide Use by producers. 
7. As part of the process of streamlining and making more transparent the services offered by 
the Ministry of Agriculture's Plant Health Depa rtment for the domestic production and export of 
agricultural products, the finishing touches are currently being put to a computerized system covering the procedures of that Department, by means of whic h the country's producers and traders will be able 
to access services concerning the registration, import and use of pesticides, as well as the export and 
import of agricultural products and by-products.  This  includes some of the administrative units of the 
Department. 
8. In addition, the Dominican Republic offers general and specific information on topics and 
work being conducted in the areas of plant and ve getable health and agri-food safety, through the 
website of the National Committee for the Applica tion of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, 
http:www.cnmsf.gob.do
.  Information on the different laws of  the country and SPS-related documents 
are also available on that site. 
 
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