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#1364: Haiti/DR: Free trade in goods, free trade in human beings? - A reply
From:Tttnhm@aol.com
According to those who accepted the economic prescription for Haiti recently
administered by the international financial institutions, import tariffs
could not be realistically sustained because the Haitian State was incapable
of controlling its ports and borders. The argument was that the State could
not depend on revenue from import tariffs because it did not possess the
resources or personnel to run an efficient Customs service, and therefore it
would be better to abandon tariffs, and allow the free marker to stimulate
the economy. The loss in revenue resulting from eradication of import tariffs
would be made good by international loans and grants until such time as the
economy had been overhauled and made competetive by the forces of the free
market, and a streamlined and rationalised State machine would be able to
raise revenue by the taxation of new businesses and individuals.
That was the idea...
In fact what has happened is that the Haitian economy has been devastated by
the influx of foreign goods now that import tariffs have been all but
eliminated. The destructive effect on domestic production, of rice imported
from the US has been referred to many times. Add to that the anecdotal
evidence of the crushing of Haitian plantain production by cheap imports from
the DR. Now we read (thanks to Yacine Khelladi's snips from DR newspapers)
that "Exports to Haiti (from the DR) during the first six months of the year
(1999) increased 108%, according to the Dominican Center for the Promotion of
Exports. Exports were US$32.56 million, up from US$15.63 for the same period
in 1998. The principal export products were: steel rods, eggs, zinc sheets,
rice, crackers, herring, and batteries."
Is it possible to see in this, that free trade in goods is undermining an
already incredibly weak Haitian economy? Yet it is the businesses in the DR
that are the main beneficiaries - the same sector that has for years
benefitted from the exploitation of cheap Haitian labour that has been set to
work in sugar production, construction, and serving the tourist sector. Now
the authorities in the Dominican Republic want to stop the free movement of
Haitians across the border. They want the Haitian State to control the
border, and allow Haitian labour to cross only when it is needed.
Isn't this ridiculous? - expecting the same Haitian state, that is apparently
too inefficient to levy import tariifs, to control the flow of human beings
across the border. Are these human beings, these Haitians, who are driven to
cross the border to look for work, doing so perhaps because the Haitian
economy has been further weakened by the unrestricted import of Dominican
goods that are cheaper than Haitian goods thanks in part but in no small
measure to the input of cheap Haitian labour over the decades......