USTR Announces Free Trade Talks With Dominican Republic

United States Trade Representative (USTR) Robert B. Zoellick says free trade talks soon will be initiated with the Dominican Republic, the largest economy in the Caribbean. The Bush administration will try to integrate the Dominican Republic into the free trade agreement (FTA) being negotiated between the United States and five Central American nations -- Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The Dominican Republic already enjoys "preferential access to the U.S. market," noted a USTR news release. "Adding the Dominican Republic as an FTA partner will promote economic growth and further integration in the Caribbean by building on a successful agreement with Central America and by lending further momentum to concluding the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations by January 2005," Zoellick wrote in a letter to Congressional leaders.