Following the decision of Haiti to ban the import by land of 23 Dominican products, which represent the majority of Dominican imports, forcing the neighboring nation to export these products to Haiti only by sea or air https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-15156-haiti-notice-import-ban-by-road-of-certain-products-from-dr.html , José del Castillo Saviñón, the Dominican Minister of Industry and Trade, said Wednesday that the new restrictions on Dominican products are harmful to bilateral trade.

Adding that besides negative impacts on mutual trade, both for producers and traders Dominicans, this will also affect Haitian traders but especially the people of Haiti that will be affected by supply shortages and delays resulting. He said he would contact his Haitian counterpart Wilson Laleau and the Dominican Embassy in Haiti for more details on this decision...

Furthermore, the Dominican Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled for consultation its ambassador in Haiti and warned that it reserves the right to take further diplomatic action in response to the announcement of the Haitian government.

The Dominican Chancellery said yesterday that the measure, which limits the land trade between the two countries, is discriminatory, since the Dominican Republic is the only neighboring country of Haiti and therefore the only member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that will be affected by this prohibition.

Chancellor Navarro explained that "[...] This measure represents violations of international commitments made by the two WTO member countries, in particular articles I, on the most favored nation; III on national treatment: V on freedom of transit; XI, Section 2, paragraph b) of the general elimination of quantitative restrictions and XIII on the non-discrimination of quantitative restrictions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), where the rules where merchandise trade between the countries are set [...]"

"If the decision announced by the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Haiti materializes, this will make difficult the possibilities of reactivating dialogue and bi-national cooperation already being affected," stressing that he had not received from Haitian authorities any formal communication on this measure nor preliminary informations on this subject, in violation of bilateral agreements of 2014.

Recall that the Dominican Republic is a WTO member since March 9, 1995, and the Republic of Haiti since 30 January 1996.

SL/ HaitiLibre