Enterprise Florida, a pro-business entity, has put together around 20 Florida companies to visit 13-16 September for an export sales mission. The Dominican Republic is seen as the state’s largest market in the Caribbean basin. In 2017, the Dominican Republic imported more than US$3.1 billion in goods from Florida. The Dominican Republic ranks sixth in Florida’s trading partners, with nearly $6 billion in total trade between the two countries in 2016.
Manny Mencia, speaking for the entity, explained that now with a new US ambassador starting in September, the timing is right. US Ambassador Robin Bernstein is a Florida businesswoman herself. “Florida will have a friend in charge of US relations, so that’s a good thing,” Mr. Mencia said.
At the 2016 Republican National Convention, Mrs. Bernstein was a Donald Trump delegate and she served as one of President Trump’s Florida electors in the Electoral College.
“Exports for 2018 are up by about 5.5%, so we’re showing a positive trend in terms of growth. It’s a very robust market and it’s a market that is very Florida-centric – 40% of what they buy from the United States comes out of Florida,” Mencia said. “We’re talking to some of the Florida ports and hoping that they’ll be joining the mission. We have more than 35 companies who have already applied.”
According to Enterprise, the industry sectors that are the best opportunities for exports from the US to the Dominican Republic are air conditioning and refrigeration equipment, automobile parts and services, building products, hotel and restaurant equipment, computers and peripherals, medical equipment, printing and graphic arts equipment, renewable energy, safety and security equipment and supplies, sporting goods and telecommunication equipment.
A unique aspect of this year’s trade mission to the Dominican Republic is a business and trade seminar hosted collaterally by the World Trade Center Miami (WTCM) to promote its new Trade and Logistics Assistance Center. This new support arm for WTCM is designed to help small to medium-sized companies in Latin America and the Caribbean import their products through Miami into the US, said Ivan Barrios, vice president of WTCM.
The 15 November seminar is only the second one hosted by World Trade Center Miami. The purpose is to find Dominican exporters and help them bring their products into the US, using Miami as their gateway, Barrios said, as well as help exporters move past barriers to entry. The first seminar was held in Nicaragua.
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Enterprise Florida
Miami Today News
10 September 2018
