Three senators from the Fuerza del Pueblo (FP), the Dominican Liberation (PLD) and the Modern Revolutionary (PRM) parties rejected that Haitians are mistreated in the Dominican sugar cane fields and attributed the report offered by three US senators in this regard to a struggle of interests that seeks to lower the country’s sugar quota.
Senators Bautista Rojas Gómez, José del Castillo and Ginette Bournigal, respectively, agreed that an old discrediting campaign is periodically activated from the United States that seeks to damage the image of the Dominican Republic.
In the case of Rojas Gomezsaid that in addition to a struggle of interests for the sugar quota, the legislators of the United States with their report violate national sovereignty.
“I called for respect for national sovereignty by Ways and Means Commerce Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., Dan Kildee, D-Michigan and Deputy Leader of the House Democratic Caucus and Co-Chair of the Sugar Caucus who issued a complaint related to alleged forced labor in the Dominican sugar industry,” he said.
He added that “these senators speak of forced labor against Haitians in the cane fields, the State Department had previously ruled in its report on human trafficking, saying that the Dominican Republic was the country with the most stateless people, we complained that the condition of a free and sovereign country like the Dominican Republic is being disrespected”
He stated that the report of the United States legislators did not investigate properly to make his complaint.
“It is the Dominican Republic that has the largest share of sugar in that preferential market in the United States and it is a policy of these senators to denounce this type of mistreatment with the purpose of eliminating the country from that market”
He added that “it is unfortunate that in an Olympic way these senators violate our sovereignty and also these senators meet with national authorities and then give some negative reports.”
Jose del Castillo
While the PLD senator for Barahona explained that the United States Department of Labor makes an analysis based on the Free Trade Agreement, Dominican Republic-Central America-USA (CAFTA-DR), on the labor market in the country.
“Now what is happening here, there are interests of people who compete for the sugar quota, and the Dominican Republic is the first supplier of the sugar quota to the States, there are people who want them to take quota away from the country and give it to other countries. sugar producers from South America and Latin America and Asia,” he said.
He added that “there are the interests of the industry that uses sugar as an input and would like to eliminate the quota system that is designed to control the internal prices of sugar and sugar substitutes such as high fructose corn syrup. , to keep prices high, the industry would like to access the international market without a quota where we all know that there is a surplus production that is placed at a price well below what sugar is sold in the United States”.
Ginette Bournigal
On her side, the official Bournigal said that the reports of the US senators were made for unhealthy interests “and they are still talking about stateless people in the country.”
“Why don’t those foundations that have defrauded Haiti go and help institutionalize it and really apply it with the funds that they can and that the UN and the OAS have, that a country that can provide documents to its citizens, then we have to give to respect in that sense and it is not possible for Senator Dan Kildee to dare to denote the Dominican Republic and not only they, but many more do so”.
Bournigal considered that the country cannot remain silent in the face of such aggression by US legislators.
