Haiti trade row splits Dominican Republic big business

Santo Domingo.- The latestdispute over trade between the Dominican Republic and Haiti has spurred a rift withinthe country´s National Business Council (Conep), where its president RafaelBlanco on Sunday said they’ll not negotiate over imports to that country in exchangefor talks over the issue of illegal immigration while its first vice presidenton Monday called for the dialogue to resume to ease the deadlock.

Conep vice president LigiaBonetti said she favors a continued dialogue between Santo Domingo and Port-au-Princeand urged the Binational Council to talks to end the recent difficulties over trade.

She said the Haitigovernment´s ban on 23 Dominican-made products transported by land in effectsince October last year, significantly harm trade, specifically the sectors whichsell those goods.

"We’ve always talkedabout keeping an open dialogue, respect the agreements that we´ve reached andin this case was an agreement between Haiti and Dominican Republic. We urge theQuisqueya Binational Council, which is composed of business leasers from bothcountries to again sit to dialogue because they definitely have violated theagreements and we haven’t been informed of this legislation or this new decree.We hope that this is resolved, because (it) ultimately affects the twocountries," Bonetti said.

The business leaderspoke during a press conference by CONEP to state its position on Public NotariesLaw 140-15, which Bonetti said the business sector expects it will be repealed.