For decades the Haitian population migrating to the Dominican Republic has not complied with Dominican laws. In Haiti there is no law, thus the Haitians are just doing what they have always done. Nevertheless, the migration situation is unusual situation when the migrant population comes from a country where citizens comply with the laws in their own country. This is the case of recent Chinese migration to the Dominican Republic.
For years, the local authorities have been known to be very lax in seeking compliance of local hygiene, labor, city, tax and custom laws of businesses of Chinese migrants. For years, these businesses concentrated in the area that would become Chinatown off Av. Duarte in the capital city. But with the signing of diplomatic ties in May 2018 with China, a significant new wave of Chinese migrants came and Chinese-owned businesses expanded to new areas and all throughout the country. The businesses seemingly had the same formula –use loopholes in the laws to cut costs and if questioned bribe the inspectors.
In May 2022 a Dominican woman, Francelys María Furcal Rodríguez, working as a store dependent in a Av. Duarte lamps and electronic store involuntarily killed her boss who had previously harassed her. The incident brought to the forefront labor violations in Chinese businesses here. The woman fled the country and only now is expected to be extradited from Spain and her case to be heard in Dominican court. The case is expected to air the illegalities against labor and other laws committed by Chinese businesses.
Local importers have been complaining and Customs seems to now taking action to correct the situation. For years local big business had lobbied and had been unable to crack down on the privileges the Chinese businesses were receiving. The Customs advantage enabled the Chinese stores to price their goods much cheaper than goods that were paying regular taxes.
For years, big business has been complaining that the complicity of the government creates a situation of unfair competition. For years, big business lobbied and complained. But the Chinese continued to get their way and forged ahead now building mega businesses. Diario Libre would report on the saga, questioning the overreaching of the Chinese business people in the Dominican Republic.
In an electoral year, the Customs Agency and Tax Agency announced they had begun to crack down on the unfair competition by the Chinese-owned businesses. Director of Customs Eduardo Sanz Lovatón says the importers, regardless of their origin, need to comply with the law. He said the DGA is working on the shutting down on Chinese-origin business violators working jointly with the DGII. He made the announcement when participating in a meeting with the Asociación Nacional de Importadores (ANI).
“There is a process of closing companies; I think we are almost at 20. That information could have been last week,” said the official.
He said that in the end, the most important thing the tax administration has to do is discourage bad practices.
“We cannot become police officers; what we have to do is discourage bad practices so that they become formalized and regularized,” he noted.
He stated that “this process is just beginning.” “It is a process that takes more than two years of investigative work, by true heroes of the DGII and the DGA, because it is a very difficult, very scrutinizing job, which requires of study, of statistics, of economic studies, of legal studies”.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
Diario Libre
1 May 2024