Thursday, as part of strengthening of bilateral relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, a working meeting was held at the residence of the Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe with Carlos Morales Troncoso, the Dominican Chancellor and Pierre Richard Casimir, Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs in the presence of the Ambassador of Haiti to Santo Domingo, Fritz Cinéas.

The Prime Minister has indicated that the discussions with the Chancellor Troncoso, focused in particular on border security, migration, trade relations and the functioning of the Joint Bilateral Commission.

Carlos Morales Troncoso, highlighted the significant progress made in the relations between the two countries in recent years and the need to consolidate them by the resolution of sensitive issues, including the issue of immigration, "We intend to prepare a work program for the year 2013 and the issue of immigration will be a major point on the agenda. So a lot of work, but mostly very good intentions on immigration between the two countries," explained the Chancellor Troncoso on a background of massive repatriation... . [7.613 Haitian national between January and September 2012 and 15.189 in 2011].

Laurent Lamothe and Morales Troncoso, also agreed to encourage a permanent communication between law enforcement agencies of the two countries in the fight against smuggling. The Prime Minister announced that a meeting will be held on Friday in Jimani between customs authorities and of border trade, to discuss a joint action plan to ensure security at the borders that affect both countries.

Mr. Troncoso said that the Joint Bilateral Commission (CMB) Haitian-Dominican, had great challenges ahead in terms of economic and trade relations between the two countries. Even more important, that the trade imbalance between the two countries is considerable ! The Dominican Republic exports annually in Haiti more than 1 billion worth of goods while at the same time Haiti exports to neighboring Republic, only 50 million products...

In the coming days, will take place also meetings between the leaders of the promotion of trade and investment to determine how to overcome inter alia, of disputes relating to trade of food products. In addition, Haiti will propose Friday that binational markets are held one day per week to ensure better security and better protect the interests of the two countries.

Concerning the operation of the CMB, Laurent Lamothe indicated that a meeting will be held with representatives of the European Union (EU) to see how to benefit from the assistance promised by the EU.

HL/ HaitiLibre