The bi-national border market in Dajabon is now operating normally, following 17 days of tension resulting from the ban imposed by Haiti on the import of Dominican poultry products. Two weeks ago, the Dajabon United Traders Association called a strike in protest at the Haitian ban. In response, the Traders Association in Ouanaminthe (Haiti) stopped Haitians from crossing the border.
However, yesterday, Monday 24 June, it was business as usual, and Haitians began crossing the border from the early hours of the morning to buy bananas, sardines, herring, flour, ice, drinking water, bread, canned goods, medicines and other goods.
They were selling fabric, shoes, used clothes, dental products, rum, garlic, and rice and beans, some of which had been donated by international humanitarian organizations to poor families in Haiti.
One Haitian trader told reporters that although poultry products from the Dominican Republic have been banned, it has led to an increase in smuggling. He said that poultry products were now entering Haiti illegally via the Masacre River and other unguarded border points, but that prices for consumers were around three or four times higher than before.
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