President Danilo Medina has received a proposal to resolve the ban Haiti has imposed on Dominican poultry products. Haiti originally imposed the ban claiming that there was avian flu in the country, which was later proven wrong by national and international health authorities.
Agriculture Minister Luis Ramon Rodriguez said that a Haitian technical commission recently visited the country and spent three days working with Dominican counterparts. The exchange resulted in the document-agreement that is ready to be signed.
It enables the Haitian authorities to inspect poultry installations of companies authorized to export to Haiti.
An editorial in Diario Libre today, Tuesday 13 August, warns that the government would be damaging the national image and the government itself if it accepts an agreement for the Haitian authorities to “certify” the safety of Dominican poultry farms without asking for anything in exchange. “We would be giving the impression that we gave in to blackmail by the Haitians, that we are weak, and that the position we have maintained that the Haitian protest was its own fabrication, was false,” writes the editorialist. “Anyone who thinks that accepting the agreement is a way of showing that we have nothing to hide is wrong. It is one thing to respond to a request made based on merit, and another to yield to the illegitimate interests of a nation that cannot show a single point in favor of protecting its own citizens,” comments the editorialist.
www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2013/8/12/288035/El-presidente-Medina-recibe-documento-que-podria-levantar-veda-de-Haiti-de
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias_det.php?id=397517&l=1