PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/307

TRADE POLICY REVIEW:

Liberalization continues but economic efficiency needs to be improved

Since its previous trade policy review in 2002, the Dominican Republic has continued with the liberalization of its trade regime, and its participation in the global economy has remained intense. While giving priority to the multilateral trade agenda, the Dominican Republic has also sought to further its integration into the global economy through preferential agreements, according to a WTO Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of the Dominican Republic.

See also:
  

The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government, will be the basis for the Trade Policy Review (TPR) by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO.

Economic growth over the period under review has been significant but distinctly cyclical, the report notes. It also stresses the disparities in the incentives framework which still favours some groups to the detriment of others and leads to inefficiencies in some sectors such as electricity.

The report says that this situation would best be addressed by taking additional steps to enhance competition in the domestic market and rationalizing fiscal incentives in order to improve economic efficiency and strengthen the fiscal situation to help smooth out economic cycles.

The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government of the Dominican Republic, will be the basis for the third TPR of the Dominican Republic by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 24 and 26 November 2008.

The following documents are available in MS Word format.

Note  back to top

Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements, in which member countries’ trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals. Significant developments that may have an impact on the global trading system are also monitored. For each review, two documents are prepared: a policy statement by the government of the member under review, and a detailed report written independently by the WTO Secretariat. These two documents are then discussed by the WTO’s full membership in the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB). These documents and the proceedings of the TPRB’s meetings are published shortly afterwards.

Print copies of previous TPR publications are available for sale from the WTO Secretariat, Centre William Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1211 Genève 21 and through the on-line bookshop.

The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States.

 

Schedule of forthcoming reviews  back to top

Liechtenstein and Switzerland: 15 and 17 December 2008

SEE ALSO 

> Full list of previous TPRs
  

 

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