Overview of CAFTA-DR
The Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) includes seven signatories: the United States, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The U.S. Congress approved the CAFTA-DR in July 2005 and the President signed the implementation legislation on August 2, 2005. As a result, The United States implemented the CAFTA-DR in the Dominican Republic on March 1, 2007.
- Find answers to Frequently Asked Questions about CAFTA-DR.
How U.S. Companies Can Benefit
CAFTA-DR reduces tariff and non-tariff barriers for U.S. exports into the Dominican Republic. In addition to tariff reduction, CAFTA-DR provides new market access for U.S. consumer and industrial products and agricultural products. It also provides unprecedented access to government procurement in the partner countries, liberalizes the services sectors (see also financial services), protects U.S. investments in the region, and strengthens protections for U.S. patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. The Agreement covers customs facilitation and provides benefits to small and medium-sized exporters. Provisions are also included that address government transparency and corruption, worker rights, protection of the environment, trade capacity building, and dispute settlement.
- Learn more about How Your Company Can Benefit from CAFTA-DR.
- Find the Tariff Elimination Schedule for the Dominican Republic.
How do U.S. products qualify to take advantage of CAFTA-DR?
If goods contain only U.S. or Central American or Dominican Republic inputs, they qualify. If they contain some inputs from other countries, they still might qualify if they meet specific criteria set out in the Rules of Origin of the Agreement. Each product has a unique rule, based on its tariff classification. Most of the rules require either that the non-originating inputs undergo a specified transformation through processing in the United States or one or more of the other signatory countries (tariff shift method) and/or that they have a sufficient level of originating content as determined by a formula (regional value content method).
- Learn more about the Rules of Origin for CAFTA-DR.
Contact Us to learn how we can help you take advantage of CAFTA-DR.