22446: Severe: Reply to Vilaire (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Constantin Severe <csevere@hotmail.com>

It is a shame to lose such a positive contributor to the list. Vilaire's
posts often dealt with issues that I was trying to get a handle on.  For
example, despite the sustained depreciation of the gourde in recent years
the American imports(particularly rice) manage to stay just cheap enough to
keep their Haitian competitors from making a profit.

While tariffs are a tempting solution, in an attempt to boost the lagging
Haitian Agricultural sector, I'm not sure they would actually accomplish
what proponents hope. For any gov't to talk of raising taxes(which this
would be on the urban population) it needs legitimacy and actual means of
implementing its program. Neither of which the current Kabuki gov't has. We
could actually have the situation where there is a increase in the price of
imported products(making life more expensive for Haitians) with gov't
officials pocketing the tariff and whatever bribes the rice merchants throw
their way to avoid the tariff. I also have a hard time seeing the current or
any Haitian gov't raising tariffs on American products, when Haiti has
become so dependant on US aid(even in its promised, check is in the mail
form).

This may sound overly simple but the best way to increase Haitian
Agricultural production is to have a gov't in place today that, whether you
like it or not, will be in place tomorrow. The woman in the piece Arthur
sent in went to excruiating lengths to make it to the Dominican Republic
once a week,  because at some level she knew that the D.R. would be there
when she made her journey. It was a safer bet than making some arrangement
in Haiti that due to vagaries of life as we now know it Haiti might not
happen.  A large portion of the expense of doing business in Haiti is the "I
don't know what the Hell is going to happen tomorrow" surcharge. Talk of
development strategies and the like although welcome will have to come
second at least for the near term to stability.

                                                                 Constantin

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