a445: Dominican Republic: Trade corridor sought for Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Benodin <r.benodin@worldnet.att.net>

Dominican Republic
Trade corridor sought for Haiti
Horacio Alvarez, spokesman for the Dominican Association of Exporters
(Adoexpo) and Antonio Espin, former president of the Herrera Industrial
Association, advocate the opening of a trade corridor and a terminal along
the border with Haiti to speed up verifying freight containers, trucks and
exports/imports. They believe the facility would reduce bureaucracy and
other obstacles to trade with Haiti. In their opinion, trade now is at US$80
to US$100 million a year. They believe a trade terminal would triple that
amount. They say that after the US, Haiti is the most important market for
Dominican exports. Espin said that the most serious problems are delays
caused by all the red tape involved in border inspections and in obtaining
military and public health permits.