During a press conference on Monday, November 20, 2023, at the Ouanaminthe Customs Office, representatives of traders' associations and leaders of the Ouanaminthe Drivers and Owners Union (SCPO) appealed to regional authorities for a truce to facilitate merchants and truck owners in retrieving their products from the Dominican Republic.
Estimé St Juste, Ajax Guillaumètre, and Yves Robert Narcisse, respectively the president of SCPO, a member of ACICO, and a representative of Cap Shipping, spoke at the press conference. They all advocated for the reopening of the Haitian side of the border.
"If this situation, causing the closure of the border, persists, it could result in the loss of approximately 27,000 jobs at the Caracol Industrial Park (PIC) due to decreased demand and constraints preventing companies from honoring their contracts," stated Estimé St Juste.
Furthermore, he mentioned that Dominican authorities have imposed a fee of $100 per day for each of his containers stranded in the province of Dajabón.
Ajax Guillaumètre emphasized the need for such a initiative to help reduce smuggling in the area on behalf of the traders in the ACICO structure. Guillaumètre announced that they would engage in discussions with regional authorities to reach a concerted agreement, which, according to him, could facilitate the population's access to supplies before the year-end holidays.
Simultaneously, the unionists clarified that the requested truce would have no impact on the continuation of construction work on the irrigation canal on the Massacre River. "The Haitian demand to continue the construction of the irrigation canal is valid. Our request is not aimed at preventing it. It concerns only the repatriation of our goods in the neighboring land," they stated.
The non-opening of the Haitian side of the Haitian-Dominican border has significant consequences for public transportation and both formal and informal trade in the Northeast department, especially as the year-end activities approach.