Could be.
I don't know the exact stats, but I speculate that MOST cars in the DR came in from the states, and many of those foreign cars were made in the states, allowing them to fall under DR-CAFTA.
Actually, most cars in the DR are from Japan not the US...
We used to call them "Version Japonesa/Americana" when talking or dealing with a given brand sold in both sources.
Out of a 100% import figures the Asian provided vehicles will take over 68% of the slice, while US/others will share the rest coming into the DR.
The same happens with spare parts! Most our spares come directly from Japanese/Asian suppliers. Which are considered to have a higher quality/value than their US counterparts.
Depending on brand/country of manufacture, cars command higher or lower rates than actual blue book values in the source nations.
Models for which spare parts are not too common or on a per order basis, regularly see their actual street value fall much lower than their actual real value in other markets. This is because most vehicle owners can't afford to have their main form of transportation idling while the parts come in, while other models are abundant to pick a good value from local spare suppliers.
The only vehicles that break away from this are high end luxury ones, the rest considered to be regulars are ruled by the DR system...
The now applied first registration tax for vehicles, is the answer developed for the expected removal of all tariffs and VATs on imports soon enough. Since we can't just allow US manufactured vehicles to enter duty free, while exacting tariffs on others.
We're in the process of creating a spreading charge over registration for newly imported vehicles, where they will pay a descending tax rate for 5 years, instead of a single payment. The full payment will still be available for those that can afford it, but a least 5 yearly spread will be made available for others with small convenience fees for the option.
We're working out the kinks behind total loss behind such system, so that insurers will also cover the gap (gap insurance for registration taxes) if the vehicle is totaled of lost before the full tax is collected long term.
Once we're able to remove the long standing practice of undervaluing car sales amounts, in order to avoid paying the taxes by buyers during title transfers; we'll be able to remove the first registration tax completely.
We're currently thinking on a way to have insurers mandated to cover loss for theft or accidents, taking the sales tax figure recorded for titling the vehicles. In a way making it a huge risk and gamble for vehicle owners, to underreport the actual amount paid for the transaction in the first place.
Believe it or not, we lose more on internal car sales between private citizens and dealers than we collect on tariffs or Vats on imports today.