The Dominican Republic’s top exports in 2015 were precious stones & metals, precision instruments, and tobacco.

Its main imports in 2015 were electrical machinery, industrial machinery, and oil and mineral fuels.

Overall in 2015, the Dominican Republic ran a sizeable trade deficit of more than US$16 billion. During that period, it ran surpluses with only a handful of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Cuba, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, and Suriname.

The Dominican Republic is the second largest Caribbean nation by landmass. It dominates the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with Haiti.

The Dominican Republic’s GDP ( US$160 billion) and GDP per capita (US$15,900), both measured by purchasing power parity, are roughly eight times larger than Haiti’s.

The Dominican Republic is party to a 1998 free trade agreement with the Caribbean community that includes Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

The only commodity that the Dominican Republic significantly imported from Haiti in 2015 was clothing that was not knitted or crocheted. However, it exported significantly more knitted or crocheted clothing to Haiti as well as cotton in 2015 than it imported.

The Dominican Republic’s large trade deficit with Trinidad and Tobago in 2015 was primarily driven by massive oil and mineral fuel imports.

The Dominican Republic signed a free trade agreement with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua in 1998 and CAFTA-DR, which included the United States, in 2004. The Dominican Republic also signed a preferential trade agreement with Panama in 1988.

In 2015, the Dominican Republic ran trade deficits with all but two South American countries. Its largest trading partners were Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela

The Dominican Republic traded the most with Brazil in 2015. Approximately a quarter of its imported goods from Brazil were corn and semi-finished products of iron or non-alloy steel.

The United States was the Dominican Republic’s largest trading partner in 2015. The Dominican Republic has a free trade agreement with the US under CAFTA-DR.

The Dominican Republic primarily exports precision instruments, tobacco, electrical machinery, and precious stones and metals to the United States. Its chief imports from the US are oil and mineral fuels, plastics, and electrical machinery.

Follow on Twitter @elhemisferioblog

Support the creation of new content by donating here