Trade deficit with US grows

[NewsWhore]

Economist Luis Vargas says that the DR's trade deficit with the United States is up 92.1% to US$955.9 million, up from US$497.7 million for the same first quarter last year. As reported in Hoy, he says that the deficit is a combination of a 23.4% increase to US$2.27 billion in imports, plus a decline of 2.1% to RD$1.37 billion in exports. Marking the implementation of the DR-CAFTA free trade agreement, over a 14-month period, from March 2007 to April 2008, the trade deficit has increased from US$142.1 million to US$267.6 million a month. He says this is a "scandalous red of around UUS$2.5 billion, or an average of US$179 million".

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