The complaint for a possible labor abuse in sugar mills is not new. It happens from time to time and depending on the circumstances.
The truth is that if it were attended to by the US, it would be a drag on the economy, but fundamentally for the employment of Haitian and Dominican migrants who still live from the growth of the sugar cane harvest in the Dominican fields.
The indication, again, of forced labor in Dominican sugar mills would bring not only sanctions that would eliminate the tariff quota that today is the largest of all the assignments to the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, but that it would set a bad precedent for the Dominican Republic in terms of compliance with trade agreements such as DR-Cafta and that it would be extended to others.
The topic must draw the priority attention of Dominican President Luis Abinader on his trip to Washington, DC., to clarify any doubts at a time when the world is going through an economic crisis that, in Haiti’s case, is more bloody due to its status as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and the social and political chaos it faces after it was converted into “state of siege” by criminal gangs.
Alert calls when there are violations are important by way of correction, but a sanction that forces the paralysis of mills of regional importance would bring millionaire losses to the industrythousands of jobs for Dominicans from the countryside and Haitian migrants who earn their living in the production of sugar and the sanctioning disrepute contemplated in trade agreements.
Precisely in July of this year the Department of Agriculture Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) It granted the highest tariff quota for unrefined sugar exports of 35 countries in the world to the Dominican Republic, including the entire LAC region, surpassing that of Brazil and the Philippines.
The tariff quota assigned to the DR for 2023 is 189,343 metric tons of sugar of cane The United States excluded Nicaragua from that allocation of quotas contemplated in the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The allocation of tariff quotas for raw sugar is 1,117,195 MT, from 35 countries around the world and contrary to the negative part raised in the report, according to press reports, the Dominican Republic has the largest share. The report, however, acknowledges progress.
The production of sugar in the country is of great importance to the Americans, whose investments began to arrive after the removal of gold from the great powers. It has faced successive crises.
The DR-Cafta deals in its article 16.2.1 on labor commitments.
The parties acknowledge that it is inappropriate to promote trade or investment by weakening or reducing the protection afforded by their domestic labor laws and that each party will endeavor to ensure that it does not rescind or repeal, or offer to rescind or repeal, any such labor law. way that weakens or reduces its adherence to the internationally recognized labor rights indicated in article 16.8, as a way to encourage trade with another party, or as an incentive for the establishment, acquisition, expansion or retention of an investment in its territory, says the agreement.
sugar mills
The Dominican sugar mills that export cane sugar are the Central Roman Corporation, Consorcio Azucarero de Empresas Industriales (CAEI), and Consorcio Azucarero Central (CAC).
provinces
There are several cane sugar producing provinces in the DR, La Romana, San Cristóbal, San Pedro de Macorís, Barahona. El Porvenir operated by the CEA.
