Dominican exports flat despite diversified products: World Bank

Santo Domingo.- Despite progress to diversify the products offered abroad and public-private effort to generate a productive chain, Dominican Republic’s exports posted a lower-than-expected results compared with similar countries in the region.

A report released by the World Bank on Thursday, based on 2012 data, notes that given the economy’s level of development, export volumes show a lower than expected dynamism, and identifies three challenges to thrust toward international markets: product quality, the duality of the export offer, and excessive market concentration.

The trade competitiveness diagnosis "How to keep Dominican Republic’s export dynamism" by José Daniel Reyes and Miguel Eduardo Sanchez notes that the country has a dual export offer, as companies in the Special Economic Zones (EEZs) system get preferential treatment, but jeopardize other productive sectors.

The report says the country’s situation demands sustained talks among all stakeholder to reconsider the policy of incentives and infrastructure support to exporters, to fulfill their potential in foreign trade. It says the incentives formula, in addition to creating distortions, has a 1% cost on GDP.

It also states that despite Dominican Republic’s diversified product portfolio, hasn’t done the same with markets as revealed by a high degree of dependence on United States and Haiti, countries which account for 70% of total exports, while growth has been the same since 2000, but lower than Colombia, Honduras, Costa Rica and El Salvador.