The director of the Center for Export and Investment (CEI-RD), Luis Henry Molina, expects there soon will be the conditions for a boom in Dominican exports and investments. He said that recent studies published by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank have shown the DR is lacking a comprehensive export and investment strategy. Molina said his department is working on a multi-sectorial approach so that the country can double its exports and attract more investments.
Much work is needed as the DR is lagging in exports. The reality is that the country has not taken advantage of trade agreements with the United States, Central America and Europe. Instead there has been a marked increase in imports from these markets without a concomitant spike in exports.
For example, with the United States, the Dominican Republic has gone from having a trade surplus to maintaining a growing deficit with the US after signing the DR-CAFTA free trade agreement. The DR consistently had trade surpluses with the US until 2005. Since the start of the agreement in 2006, the DR has been suffering an ever-increasing trade deficit with the United States and Central America. Overall imports from the US have doubled.
El Caribe reports that from 2001-2004, prior to the implementation of the treaty, the DR exported US$16.68 billion to the United States and imported US$9.6 billion. From 2005-2010, exports were US$20.07 billion, but imports increased to US$28.4 billion. From 2011 to 2015, exports experienced a slight increase to US$20.69 billion, and imports also increased slightly to US$28.9 billion.
