{"id":244339,"date":"2025-11-20T06:22:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T10:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/?p=244339"},"modified":"2025-11-20T08:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T12:45:09","slug":"atlantic-council-urges-dr-cafta-modernization-to-counter-china-and-secure-supply-chains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/2025\/11\/20\/atlantic-council-urges-dr-cafta-modernization-to-counter-china-and-secure-supply-chains\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic Council urges DR-CAFTA modernization to counter China and secure supply chains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A recent analysis by the Atlantic Council strongly asserts that modernizing the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) is a critical, dual-purpose mission for both Washington and Santo Domingo, framing the update as a geopolitical imperative necessary to secure regional stability and economic advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings emphasize that the current agreement is functionally outdated, posing risks to US economic interests and leaving the Dominican Republic’s economy vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modernizing the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) is considered important for both the Dominican Republic (DR) and the United States for economic, strategic, and security reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original agreement took effect between 2006 and 2009, and the world economy has changed significantly since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The perspective of the Atlantic Council is that for the United States, updating the pact is seen as a crucial strategic move to counter Beijing’s growing influence in Central America and the Caribbean. By offering a “compelling alternative” to China’s often “opaque financial approach,” modernization is intended to keep key trade partners, particularly the Dominican Republic, firmly aligned with the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed upgrades focus on supply chain resilience. Several key points for the upgrade are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North American Corridor: Modernization would encourage the strategic relocation of manufacturing and sourcing away from China-dependent networks. Aligning the pact’s standards with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) would create a more coherent North American-Central American production corridor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stability and migration: An upgraded agreement is also viewed as a tool for regional stability, helping to reinforce economic resilience, reduce migration pressures fueled by economic fragility, and foster inclusive growth among partner nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trade barrier removal: The modernization is needed to tackle current friction points for the US private sector, including regulatory opacity, customs delays, and technical barriers that impede trade across the CAFTA-DR members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economic lifeline for the Dominican Republic
For the Dominican Republic and the wider region, the Atlantic Council argues that modernization is critical for enhancing economic integration, competitiveness, and attracting high-quality Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pact’s trade rules, largely unchanged since 2005, must be overhauled to address the realities of the modern global economy. Key deficiencies highlighted in the report include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital trade and data flows: The agreement lacks modern, binding rules essential for governing data flows and trade in the rapidly expanding digital sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boosting near-sourcing: Rules of origin for sectors like textiles, autos, and electronics must be updated to better reflect modern regional value chains and explicitly incentivize companies to participate in near-sourcing\u2014moving production closer to the US market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Services and investment: Chapters covering tradable services, such as cloud computing and fintech, as well as intellectual property provisions and dispute settlement, need to be deepened and strengthened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sustainability and enforcement: Stronger, more enforceable commitments on labor and environmental enforcement are deemed necessary to support both decent work standards and sustainable regional supply chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, the analysis concludes that updating DR-CAFTA is a win-win, strengthening resilience against potential economic coercion while cementing the Dominican Republic\u2019s role as an indispensable trade and strategic partner for the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Atlantic Council is generally considered to have a centrist, internationalist bias that favors a strong U.S. global leadership role, pro-NATO perspectives, and a robust Western alliance. The Council receives funding from public and private sources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more:
Atlantic Council <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

20 November 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent analysis by the Atlantic Council strongly asserts that modernizing the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) is a critical, dual-purpose mission for both Washington and Santo Domingo, framing the update as a geopolitical imperative necessary to secure regional stability and economic advantage. The findings emphasize that the current agreement is functionally outdated, … <\/p>\n

Read more\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[337,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244339"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244369,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244339\/revisions\/244369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}