#2030: Economics of Sugar Industry: Lyall comments

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: J. David Lyall <david@lyalls.net>

>As for HASCO, when you drive to the south toward Leogane you will see a
 
>large rusty and abandoned sugar refinery built by the Mevs family. 
>People familiar with it have told me that it was never put into 
>operation and was merely a ploy in their leveraging a buyout of HASCO. 
>They did eventually assume control of HASCO and then proceeded to break
 
>it up and sell it piecemeal. Most of the processing factory was sold
 for 
>scrap metal putting hundreds of people out of work.
>
>Their plan, which can still be seen today for those who trace imported
 sugar 
>sales in Haiti, was always to dismantle it because a greater profit can
 be 
>made with sweetheart deals they have made to import sugar from the
 Dominican 
>Republic.
>
>If that falls within the definition of free trade I am not sure the
 people 
>of Haiti need it.

I do not see how buying up Hasco was necessary to the plan of importing
 cheaper
sugar from the DR. Where, as we are all told, the laborers are Hatian,
 paid far more
than they can get in Haiti and far less than dominicans will work for.
Perhaps it is related to the monopoly system of government licenses, I
 dunno.

So, how is it possible that sugar from the dr, where wages are higher
 than Haiti,
is cheaper than haitian? And, why didn't {whomever} start importing
 sugar, produced
by haitians in a country where investment is allowed, and drive hasco
 out of business?

The whole idea that it was necessary to buy up the sugar company and
 dismantle it
before importing was allowed suggests that an anti competitive licensing
 policy
was behind it all.

Licensing is a far worse idea than tariffs. Tariffs should be
 non-discriminatory.
Licenses to produce/import something are by definition discriminatory,
 with
the corrupt getting the favors.

So, it is possible that the blame here was the combattant revolution
 practice of
designating monopolies. That is an old mercantilist practice of the 17th
 and 18th centuries.
The slaving companies worked the same way for hundreds of years.

_________
J. David Lyall,
  [ Jedidiah Daudi in full ki-Swahili ]
http://www.lyalls.net/
david@lyalls.net