NewsWhore
08-03-2012, 06:10 PM
Senators Adriano Sanchez Roa (Elias Pina), Manuel Paula (Bahoruco) and Sonia Mateo Espinosa (Dajabon), all at the border with Haiti, have rejected the Customs Department announcement that it would enforce the ban on importing used clothes into the country. They say the ban will increase poverty in the border communities. Most of the used clothes sold in the Dominican Republic is imported by land from Haiti.
Mateo Espinosa said that trading in used clothes is a mainstay of border communities and if the measure is implemented it would be a stranglehold on the poorest classes. He said that when Dominicans buy the clothes coming from Haiti from Haitians, the Haitians then spend the money on Dominican products.
Sanchez Roa said that the legislators at the border could not just stand by and do nothing, and that there would be a meeting to review the situation. He went on to say that there was very little investment in border provinces and one should not take away the important source of trade.
He criticized the Customs authorities for implementing the measure that was laid down in a law dating back to 1973, and was therefore obsolete.
In addition, overseas deputies from the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) Ruben Luna, Jose Morel, Adelis de Jesus Olivares and Aurelio Agustin Mercedes, also rejected the new measure saying that it would seriously affect thousands of Dominicans who benefited from the used clothing sent by their families from overseas.
The import of used clothes had been banned earlier on grounds that it decimated the local dressmaking and tailor industry. Local seamstresses could not compete with the cheaper used clothes. Now major shopping centers have lobbied for the ban on grounds that they pay taxes and contribute more to the economy.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)
Mateo Espinosa said that trading in used clothes is a mainstay of border communities and if the measure is implemented it would be a stranglehold on the poorest classes. He said that when Dominicans buy the clothes coming from Haiti from Haitians, the Haitians then spend the money on Dominican products.
Sanchez Roa said that the legislators at the border could not just stand by and do nothing, and that there would be a meeting to review the situation. He went on to say that there was very little investment in border provinces and one should not take away the important source of trade.
He criticized the Customs authorities for implementing the measure that was laid down in a law dating back to 1973, and was therefore obsolete.
In addition, overseas deputies from the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) Ruben Luna, Jose Morel, Adelis de Jesus Olivares and Aurelio Agustin Mercedes, also rejected the new measure saying that it would seriously affect thousands of Dominicans who benefited from the used clothing sent by their families from overseas.
The import of used clothes had been banned earlier on grounds that it decimated the local dressmaking and tailor industry. Local seamstresses could not compete with the cheaper used clothes. Now major shopping centers have lobbied for the ban on grounds that they pay taxes and contribute more to the economy.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)