Haiti aims to slap 40% tariffs on Dominican Republic

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic’s Foreign Ministry is negotiating with the World Trade Organization (WTO) a more favorable solution to bilateral trade with Haiti, a nation that aims to raise tariffs by up to more than 40% on some goods, taking advantage of their condition of impoverished nation (MFN and PMA) and their entry into the Caribbean Common Market (Caricom) as a full member.

Currently, Haiti charges considerably low tariffs in relation to the Common External Tariff that Caricom charges to third countries, in this case the Dominican Republic.

For the first time Port-au-Prince presented its intention to charge Caricom’s tariffs by means of a notification to the WTO, on January 10, 2017.

The talks have been taking place during all the while and two weeks ago the issue was discussed at the meeting of the WTO’s Council Trade of Goods, which was reportedly a commission of the Dominican Foreign Ministry.