The general manager of Rayovac in the Dominican Republic, former president of the Asociación de Industriales de Herrera, and former candidate to vice mayor of Santo Domingo for the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano, Antonio Espín said that it is in the best interest of the DR to sign a free trade agreement with Haiti. Espín explained that this agreement would be more beneficial than the ones being negotiated with the English-speaking Caribbean (Caricom) and Central American nations. Espín feels that a free trade agreement would spur an increase in production and employment in this country. He stressed that contrary to the case of the DR and Haiti, at present there are no low cost transport alternatives linking Central America or Caricom nations. More so, he said that the entire population of the English-speaking Caribbean is less than that of Haiti. On the downside, Haiti’s population is the poorest in the American continent, considerably limiting what its inhabitants can purchase from the DR.
