Freight distribution across the border with Haiti is still on hold, after the Dominican and Haitian authorities failed in two attempts to settle a conflict between the National Federation of Dominican Transportation (Fenatrado) and the Haitian Federation of Workers and Transporters (Fenatrath) that has lasted for several weeks. The Haitian transporters are demanding the right to 50% of the cargo coming over from the DR or that Dominican truckers pay a RD$4,000 fee for the right to transport the cargo into Haiti. Using violent methods similar to those Fenatrado has used to monopolize cargo in the DR, the Haitian truckers have impeded Fenatrado truckers from carrying their cargo in Haiti.
Yesterday, the Dominican ambassador in Haiti, Ruben Silie, told Diario Libre by telephone from Port-au-Prince that steps are being taken towards a solution and that talks would continue in the frontier town of Jimani at noon today. In this little town, the most important gateway for commercial transport between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, a meeting between the Dominican ambassador and his Haitian counterpart in the Dominican Republic, Fritz Cineas, took place.
In yesterday's meeting, as well as the freight transportation representatives, Blas Peralta and Jean Fritz Constant, Minister of Commerce and Industry Jose Ramon Fadul and the Sub Minister of Foreign Relations, Alejandra Liriano were also in attendance.
Twenty-five trailers and trucks loaded with construction materials, flour, vegetables, poultry and other merchandise entered Haiti daily prior to the impasse. Each trailer that entered Haiti with a load from Dominican territory charges RD$40,000 to RD$50,000.
The president of the Dajabon Traders Federation, Freddy Morillo, told Diario Libre that in normal times perhaps RD$100 million a week moves through Dajabon, where cargo is estimated to be down by half. According to the DR Center for Exports and Investments (CEI-RD), Haiti imported US$569 million from the DR last year, as reported in Listin Diario. Most entered Haiti by land.

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