Santo Domingo.- Specialists and e-commerce consultants on Sunday called proposals from various sectors to erect hurdles to online shopping, suicidal and poppycock.

Attorney and business consultant Elka Scheker said levying a new tax on Internet purchases would violate international pacts such as the country’s major Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), which states that signatories will not hinder the entry of goods from e-commerce.

"They cannot be subjected to any hurdle. The way people will conduct transactions and purchases will be online. It's suicide. Poppycock. The game changed completely, we must realize that as a country," said Scheker, interviewed by Orlando Jorge on Color Vision Channel 9.

She agreed with e-commerce and web specialist Arturo Lopez, who noted that businesses and merchants need to change the traditional business model to new parameters that include the use of new technologies. "The tax will harm the consumer; the problem here is the business model. The overall pulse tells us that the models are changing. We need to ensure that citizens aren’t affected with a new tax."

For her part the publicist Joan Guerrero said countries like the United States encourage more online shopping than physical stores. “In the case of online shopping, the effort to regulate purchases is already ??history."