Dominican Republic's free zone: Do you know what that is?

Background on Dominican Republic's free zone industry

With the purpose of attracting foreign investment in order to increase levels of employment and foreign currency in the country, in 1970 the Dominican Republic established a legal regimen of extra-territoriality by means of which companies that are set up in a specific geographic territory declared as an "industrial free zone" and surrounded by insurmountable walls, are exempt from the payment of taxes on the profits they generate.

Regulatory framework for the importation of goods into the Dominican Republic

In the Dominican Republic, regulations on customs procedures are contained on the Customs Law

Law on the Protection of Dominican Importers

In the Dominican Republic, the contractual relations between the parties intervening in any distribution agreement between a foreign licensor and a local distributor/importer are under the scope of Law 173, enacted in 1966 and subsequently amended, which establishes extraordinary protection for the local distributor/importer of foreign services and products.