The Centro de Estudios Padre José Luis Alemán SJ, Ponticificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) released the following report on the commercial exchange between the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Haiti:
Trade between the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Haiti in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Haitian Statistical Monitor
According to data published recently by the General Directorate of Customs, the Dominican Republic’s external trade of goods with the Republic of Haiti registered the voluminous surplus (exported value higher than imported value) of US$1,835 million, during the 27 months comprised by the first nine months of the years 2019, 2020 and 2021.
The Dominican-Haitian trade surplus translated into exported amounts (US$1,848 million) practically equal to the aforementioned surplus amounts (US$1,835 million); since imports of items barely declared the meager round figure of US$8 million.
In the structure of global exports from the Dominican Republic to Haiti, five items of merchandise occupied the first five positions of importance in absolute values and corresponding relative weights; i.e. cotton with US$303 million (16.45%), plastic and its manufactures with US$232 million (12.59%), knitted clothing with US$215 million (11.66%), cement, gypsum and salt with US$119 million (6.45%) and milling and other products with US$105 million (5.68%), the sum of which was equivalent to US$974 million or more than half (52.85%) of all exported goods.
However, the significant importance of these items means that Dominican-Haitian trade is based mainly on re-exports of imported products (cotton), exports of goods with low value added (plastics), sales of intermediate products from local maquilas to Haitian maquilas (knitted clothing) and national exports with a high component of imported inputs or low value added (both cement and wheat).
It is also worth noting the reduced weight of Dominican-Haitian trade in goods in the Dominican Republic’s total trade transactions with the rest of the world during the 27-month period under study, both in exports and, above all, in imports.
The value of Dominican exports to the Republic of Haiti represented the following relative shares of total exports to the rest of the world: total (7.89%), national (12.53%), export processing zones (5.12%) and others (10.43%), with cotton accounting for the largest share (94.10%) in the export processing zone section of the total exports of this item to the other countries.
While Dominican imports from the Haitian economy had a negligible impact with a weighted value of 0.2% of the total imports of products from the rest of the world economy.
