The problem with the DR, and many other countries, is that to comply with a trade agreement, they just call their import duties something else, just like the DR removed the import duty on cars and renamed it a "registration fee'. Other countries removed their import duties and then just renamed them a VAT tax to comply with the trade agreement in name only.
In 2000 when our tariffs on imports were very low(4% or less), we were $5 trillion dollars in debt after 224 years of existence. Just 25 years later, we're now $36 trillion dollars in debt. We can no long afford to look the other way and play "rich uncle" to the rest of the world.
