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How much of the Dominican Republic’s trade passes through the Panama Canal?

In 2024, an estimated $12.7 billion of the Dominican Republic’s trade passed through the Panama Canal, 35.3% of its seaborne trade. That is $2 billion of exports and $10.8 billion of imports. The partners with the most trade through it are China, the United States and Japan.

Summary

Estimated value
$12.7billion
Of its seaborne trade
35.3%
Exports
$2billion
Imports
$10.8billion

Trend

Estimated value per year

The Dominican Republic’s estimated trade through the Panama Canal rose 57% between 2019 and 2024

Value in USD billions

  • Dominican Republic 12.7

Source: CEPII BACI

Show the numbers
YearEstimated valueOf its seaborne trade
1995$1.5 billion21.5%
1996$1.5 billion20.7%
1997$1.8 billion22.5%
1998$2.3 billion23.6%
1999$2.4 billion24%
2000$2.3 billion22.3%
2001$1.9 billion20.8%
2002$2.8 billion23.8%
2003$2.3 billion23.1%
2004$2.6 billion23.5%
2005$3.1 billion25%
2006$3.8 billion25.7%
2007$4.5 billion26.2%
2008$4.8 billion26.9%
2009$3.8 billion26.6%
2010$4.9 billion26.3%
2011$5.8 billion26.2%
2012$5.4 billion25.5%
2013$5.4 billion25.9%
2014$6.1 billion28%
2015$6.4 billion30.4%
2016$6.2 billion29.9%
2017$6.7 billion30.2%
2018$7.9 billion30.6%
2019$8.1 billion32.1%
2020$7.2 billion33%
2021$10.1 billion33.5%
2022$12.5 billion34.5%
2023$12.5 billion34.4%
2024$12.7 billion35.3%

Partners whose trade crosses it

Estimated value of its trade with each partner that crosses the chokepoint; the percentage is the share of all its trade through the chokepoint, not of the pair’s trade.

  1. Dominican Republic–China$6 billion · 47%
  2. Dominican Republic–United States$3.9 billion · 31%
  3. Dominican Republic–Japan$498 million · 3.9%
  4. Dominican Republic–South Korea$421 million · 3.3%
  5. Dominican Republic–Costa Rica$321 million · 2.5%
  6. Dominican Republic–Taiwan$204 million · 1.6%
  7. Dominican Republic–Chile$189 million · 1.5%
  8. Dominican Republic–Peru$188 million · 1.5%
  9. Dominican Republic–Thailand$180 million · 1.4%
  10. Dominican Republic–Canada$154 million · 1.2%

What crosses it

The products with the highest estimated value in 2024, with their share of the total through the chokepoint.

  1. Cars$663 million · 5.2%
  2. Refined petroleum$590 million · 4.6%
  3. Medical and dental instruments$360 million · 2.8%
  4. Trucks$282 million · 2.2%
  5. Low-voltage switches and connectors$275 million · 2.2%
  6. Natural gas and LPG$247 million · 1.9%
  7. Other plastic articles$233 million · 1.8%
  8. Crude petroleum$193 million · 1.5%
  9. Raw tobacco$190 million · 1.5%
  10. Coated flat steel$180 million · 1.4%

Reference ports

Santo Domingo (100%)

Each port with the weight it receives from the country’s trade, based on where its GDP is generated and which coast is closest.

Sources and method

Sources and licenses

Methodology

We estimate the value crossing each chokepoint from BACI trade that travels by sea according to our mode heuristic, split between each country’s ports by where its GDP is generated and which coast is closest, and routed over our own sea network. It is an estimate, not a count of ships. It covers 99.9% of seaborne trade. The approach follows Verschuur, Lumma and Hall (Nature Communications, 2025). Data up to 2024.

All maritime chokepoints