Trade Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon has expressed keen interest to further develop the bilateral relationship between T&T and the Dominican Republic in the areas of trade and economic relations.
This, as Gopee-Scoon recently received a virtual courtesy call from newly-appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Dominican Republic to T&T Wellington Darío Bencosme Casataños.
Gopee-Scoon said T&T is actively seeking to further expand its non-energy exports to the Dominican Republic and highlighted an upcoming project to establish a commercial attaché in Jamaica which would also have responsibility for the Dominican Republic’s market. This, she added, would provide a strategic opportunity for increasing trade and business between both countries.
The minister also expressed the need for both countries to work together to utilise the market space to the advantage of both sides and agreed to explore and capitalise on the complementarity and synergies that exist between T&T and the Dominican Republic.
Ambassador Bencosme Casataños suggested many areas for collaboration, adding that he’s very enthusiastic to work towards strengthening the productive and positive relationship with T&T in trade and investment.
The Dominican Republic is an important trading partner for Trinidad and Tobago, both as part of the regional bloc CARIFORUM and under the Caricom-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement.
T&T has been a net exporter to the Dominican Republic over 2016 to 2020.
In 2020, this country exported products valued at approximately TT$ 302 million and imported approximately TT$ 254 million from that market.
The main products exported in 2020 were urea, prepared foods, plastic bottles, glass bottles, copper conductors, toilet paper and natural gas, while the top imported products were bananas, mineral water, tobacco, plastic packaging, gypsum, condiments, circuit breakers and avocados.