#1687: Gill replies to Driver

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: mark gill <markgill@midwest.net>

Tom Driver responds to Mark Gill
> Statistics are not my specialty.  The dumping of surplus goods is visible
in
> curbside markets on almost every street in Haiti.  The flooding of Haiti
with
> "Miami rice" and its disastrous effect on rice production in the
Artibonite is a
> well known story.  As for the explanation of how Haiti's poverty benefits
US
> manufacturing interests, I gave that in my original post.  It has to do
with the
> depression of wages throughout the Caribbean Basin and within the US.

Mark replies:

the fact of goods in public markets is not a sign of dumping.......in
markets all over Haiti, i have seen goods from all over the world and still
wear a pair of "flip-flops" sent from Italy bought in one of these
markets.......i would suggest that most of these items in the markets are
the result of normal import/export and the imbalance between these two is a
result of having a poor export market for Haitian goods or a lack of goods
to export.......

Miami rice is not the result of some nefarious US policy, made in the dark
in some hidden room in Washington.....i think this particular issue has been
discussed before.......there is no doubt that it has had a negative effect
on rice farmers, and there is no doubt that Haitian rice is of higher
nutritional value, but this is one product, while the statements made
indicate some policy of dumping.....without any substantiation.........

it is more accurate to say that some US companies, along with companies of
other countries, have taken advantage of low wages that exist in Haiti and
other countries of the Caribbean Basin, such as El Salvador and
Honduras......just as they do in Mexico and other Central/South American
countries....

but, to infer that making policy which has the intention of keeping low
wages is going somewhat far afield and suggests a set of motivations that
need to be proved......