Importing into the DR, FAQ

[Musicqueen]

Question For the 'Pibster'...

...Oops, excuse me...the Mommy formerly known as the "Pibster"...

My fiance Tony and I have been thinking about a business venture in DR...

What do you think about importing women's shoes and handbags?

I have seen shoes that you find here for dirt cheap, nice shoes, latest styles, just not worth the $60 or $70 USD they ask for in DR...

Any advice? :bandit:

Thanks!!!

MQ

 

[fernanpe]

free trade agreement with DR?

hi, does anyone knows if DR has a free trade agreement with china or japan?

can anyone help please!!!
i am trying to open a shoe wholesale business in DR.

 

[mikedoc525]

I Have 2 Used 86 Mack Trucks That I Am Interested In Selling And Exporting To Dr. Any Suggestions Who I Could Contact To Sell To?

 

[OFNI]

Are there ANY items at all that are duty free? Example: Books. My personal library consists of about 500 books that I want to send from Florida to the D. R. The value of these books is between $500 and $5,000 ... it's hard to estimate it.

Where in the 'code' (statutes, ordinances, whatever) of the D. R. can I see myself how much the different items are 'taxed?' Once I see what percentage customs is supposed to charge for the import, I can make a more educated decision what I will send to the D. R. It is understood that the calculation is probably not straight forward and depends on more than just one percentage per item - BUT if I had the legal text in front of me, I can take the time and effort to translate and understand it. ARE THERE A N Y LAWS of the D. R. readily available on the Internet?

 

[HpHenry]

Rattan business

We are a manufacturer of Fine Rattan Furniture in the Philippines. Our potential client in the Dominican Republic would like to purchas a 40 foot container of Rattan sets. The payment would be via a L/C. Can anybody tell me what is the best bank in the Republic to issue Letters of Credit. Is there any problems with letters of Credit, that anyone is aware off.

Thanks

Henry

 

[EdyAlix]

Reputable Customs Brokers

Back on 22Jan03 vpmiami asked "Helo,
yes, a listing of reputable customs brokers will be very helpful.. ", does anyone have a list?

 

[brentwallace]

hi from North Bay, Ontario

Great Site, Many Thanks























www.brentwallace.ca


http://www.brentwallace.ca

 

[marton]

Official Duties, VAT & Other Oncosts

Hi Everyone, this is a great & informative site. My wife,Marie & myself are beggining to plan to come over to the DR at the end of September to try to set up a distributor based business. We have been taking our holidays in the DR for the last 10 years and have had 15 holidays in that time with some of them being 3 week holidays. So technicaly we have spent over 6 months over there and already realise many of the pro's & cons. On our last few Holiday's we have taken time to specifically search for products which we sell in the UK, in a shop based environment.
We have identified a range of products which are freely available throughout the World mostly sold at holiday resorts and for leisure activities.

We are aware of:

[*]The cost of accomodation rental
[*]The high cost of Cars
[*]The High, High cost of Electricity
[*]& many other things

The problem we can't seem to grasp is the difficulty in the various rates of duty.

We have read with great interest all of the posts on this forum going back to 2002 and some are very,very helpful (Thanks PIB) Many posts appear to relate to getting personal effects or one off single items into the DR and arguable values as these are largely used goods.

What we are intending to do is to ship items in from various manufacturers in the World and pay the official going rate in terms of import duty, currency charges VAT etc. We are sure that the goods we intend to import will be seen as being luxury goods so we will no doubt be facing duty of between 5% & 30%, but there is a huge difference between 5% & 30% so will it be 10% 15% or perhaps 25%. Do specific types of goods have a 'Standard Duty'.

We need to know this as our selling price will be directly influenced by the amount of duty paid. We have read about various deals that can be made but this will not help as our selling price will need to remain static to allow the shops prices to also remain static, albeit currency fluctuations will also be a factor. We need to know , roughly, what duties are likely before we place orders, its no good getting our goods to the Port to finfd that the Customs Guy is hitting us for 300% because he thinks that the value should be higher than the shipment invoices state.

Its also no good having one shipment coming in with only 20% in charges to find that the next shipment is assesed at 75% as our selling costs would have been set on the first shipment. We are expecting to risk 10's of 1000's of ? Sterling, as anyone does when setting up a business, but don't want variances in Customs Officials to be the downfall of our business at the first hurdle.

Sorry Folks, I know that our products have not been mentioned as to what they are, but that is no accident. We need to cross a few T's and dot a few i's before everything can be revealed.

Regards Folks

M & T

 

[Chris]

marton, this rate 'variance' is exactly what you are going to be facing. I was talking to a business friend the other day who changed his business model to a service business, because of this uncertainty. We've had luxury tax applied to goods, just because .. I guess the previous four shipments went fine so the fifth one needed a little extra push from customs.

You are also talking simply about the incoming side. If you want to distribute the outgoing side needs a lot of attention. Again, we've recently competed against a supplier on another island for some business, and lost this business, as we could not compete on outgoing shipping costs. This was to Canada.

After many years here, our larger production runs are done in Puerto Rico on a contract basis, simply for reasons of shipping costs. If you want to discuss distributing out of here with me further, I'd be happy to do that on pm. You just need to be very sure you are not undercapitalized, and that your margins are very forgiving. You will need it, because the DR has a way of wittling away those margins. This is perhaps not the ideal location for a business that distributes. If you are looking towards ship loads of product, yes, but anything less than container load is very difficult to make work.

 

[marton]

Thank You Chris, the products we wish to import are really aimed at Tourists to the DR. We intend to distribute our goods to Sporting Goods Shops, Souvenier Shops, Beachwear Shops, Toy Shops & Hotel Shops around the DR.

The 'ONLY' way we will be 'exporting' is if a 'wheel comes off' and the business is not the success that we hoped and we 'Ship everything back to the UK'

 

[Chris]

Three more comments for you :
Most of the merchandise that goes into hotels have a racket around it. You have to be able to deal with the person that the hotel, or hotel store deals with. It is kinda like the Mob sometimes.
And secondly, I think it was MrMike that recently said, there is a book of import duties, it belongs to aduana, they read from it, and they don't tell you what they read. So, you simply have to pay what they say they read in their book. DR-Cafta (if it is ever implemented) should help with cleaning up this system, but I'm beginning to think the DR will never get to implementing the regulations that DR-Cafta requires before implementation. I would suggest to consider your business model very carefully. Also, payment terms - with hotels you're going to be hit with 30 day payment terms and receive actual payment in 90 days.
Lastly, tourists in the DR currently are mostly All Inclusive based. They don't really walk around and purchase stuff. I had some statistics from someone a while back that the average tourist used to spend something like 80 bucks to buy stuff over a week long holiday, and this number has decreased to something like 36 bucks.

 

[marton]

Once again Thanks Chris.
We have studied long & Hard about our proposed business in the DR. We have looked at things carefully, spoken to Dominicans who have businesses, spoken to Canadians, Americans & Brits who have businesses. Bounced ideas off the Hotel owners, accountants, managers & financiers of the hotel where we always stay & all coments are positive.

The customs is always going to be the problem but the Hotel has advised that their customs Broker is very good, so we will no doubt approach him as he comes recommended from people we can trust. We are already asking questions from the DR Embassy in London in an effort to get clarification on the import duty & other costs.

The shops will be a little problem at first as no-one wants to try anything new but as our products get seen more, the more people will want them.

30 day credit accounts often turns to 60, 90 or even 120 day credit accounts, but no second order will be delivered until the first is paid for. The same can be said for the UK, many 30 day accounts are running at 90 days.

We have no big ideas, just a plan, try to set up the business, spend a hard 6 months trying to get it to work, sit back, take stock, do we push on, is it going to happen, can we live off it, do we throw in the towel?

We have an idea, we have some time, we have a lot of contacts, we have some money to risk.

We are also reading just about everything on these forums, picking up tips and knowledge on the way. We don't think we know it all, we regard every comment as constructive, and we think about it.

 

[Chris]

With that attitude, well, I dare say you may just make it Good Luck!

 

[Elmarco]

Hello.
I got one question for you:
If i wanna import 6 jetskis, how much would the tax be?

Thank you

 

[CORONADO]

Hello, I'm A Dominican Born U.s. Citizen Interested In Exporting To The Dominican Republic And I Want To Know How Much Capital Is Needed To Begin Exporting Automobile Parts To The Dr? Any Names Of Companies Currently Exporting To The Dr?

Any Response Whether Positive Or Negative Will Be Appreciated.

 

[CORONADO]

You can declair a value of 1$ or 25,000$s, customs here will set the value they determine regardless of what you declair.. Cris

HOW EXTENSIVE WILL CUSTOMS RESEACH THE ACTUAL VALUE OF THE BIKE BEFORE GIVING IT A FACE VALUE.

 

[iss]

ship household goods

Pib, I have a few questions.
I want to send my computer (desktop) and other household goods to Dominican Republic. I am not sure if I need to pay taxes and if yes how much
Thanks

 

[Tuk Tuk North America]

Tuk TUk Taxi for D.R.

I am USA based operation. I import the Thailand tuk tuk taxi here. Since P.R. is a territory to the USA, and I have all credientials for import from other countries, how much trouble will it be to import them there to a established dealer.
Hope you can help
Thanks
roy

 

[Pib]

For those of you who may not know it, I haven't been in the international trade business for over two years. My knowledge might be a little rusty and my contacts, well, not much in contact. I would kindly request that Rob closes this thread.

Sorry folks, can't help much. But if you have a question about Dominican cooking, you know where to find me.