The DR-CAFTA agreement required important reforms of the domestic legal and business environment that could encourage a more competitive business development and spur investment, protect intellectual property rights, and promote transparency and rule-of-law. Indeed, the strengthening of Dominican institutions is regarded as the strongest point of the FTA for the Dominican Republic.

Vilma Arbaje, in charge of trade agreement management at the Ministry of Industry & Commerce, highlights that the requirement of clear rules of the game and the strengthening of institutionality in the DR is the greatest benefit the DR will derive from the DR-CAFTA. The obligation towards transparency contained in 13 of 22 chapters of DR-CAFTA is transcendental for the Dominican Republic. For instance, DR-CAFTA requires the Dominican government to implement the Law of Public Access to Government Information that is intended to provide an important guard against arbitrariness in public decision making, mismanagement of public funds and corruption. Anti-corruption is seen as central to poverty alleviation. DR-CAFTA requires that all government laws, resolutions, decrees, rulings and norms be published to guarantee transparency in government. Chapter 18 of the DR-CAFTA is an anti-corruption section, and an anti-bribery law was also required, with very strong penalties for Dominican and foreign private and public officers that may incur in the too common practice.

William Malamud, executive vice president of the American Chamber of Commerce, concurs that while DR-CAFTA is basically a pact between the US, the DR and Central American nations to eliminate trade barriers, specifically duties and tariffs on goods. But, he explains that it is much broader, in effect, and its greater importance lies in that it establishes the ground rules and streamlines procedures for doing business. This is expected to bring about greater confidence on the part of investors. The treaty provides for more effective and binding arbitration and conflict resolution, and has required the country to ratify certain international agreements, many of them already signed.

DR-CAFTA promotes closer economic cooperation among the Central American countries, thereby advancing regional integration.

DR-CAFTA promises to increase trade and investment, boosting economic growth and poverty reduction in Central America and the Dominican Republic. It is expected that the better business climate that would come with increased transparency and clear rules of the game will create a climate of judicial certainty that will make the country more attractive to investors, increase confidence of foreign investors in the DR and thus attract new investments. The agreement also provides security to the investor by indefinitely extending trade preferences (such as those under the Caribbean Basin Agreement and Caribbean Basin Partnership Trade Act), which is also an incentive for foreign investors that do not have commercial ties with the United States invest in the DR to take advantage of duty free access to that large market.

Greater trade levels are expected to arise from the removal of virtually all tariff and quota barriers, consolidating the preferential market access Central America already had in US markets through the Caribbean Basin Initiative.

Under the DR-CAFTA, US imports into the Dominican Republic have been classified by categories, and each category will apply the elimination of customs duties in different stages. Some products will enter the Dominican Republic duty-free on the date the agreement enters into force, and others will receive gradual reductions on the customs duties. It is important to note that not all US brand imports will be duty free, as more and more US products are now manufactured in China and country-origin rules may determine they do not fall under free trade agreement provisions of DR-CAFTA.