Thursday, Wilson Laleau, Minister of Industry and Commerce met at the office of the Prime Minister his Dominican counterpart, Jose Del Castillo Saviñón. The two Ministers reviewed the work done by both negotiating teams to reach a Memorandum of Understanding on trade relations and agreed on the essential of the agenda including :

• ssues relating to the reciprocal exchange of goods and services ;

• Compliance with sanitary and phytosanitary standards ;

• The notification before implementation of any measure, regulation or standard on trade except as regards sanitary and phytosanitary measures ;

• The exchange of information on national trade regimes ;

• Compliance with the commitments made under the Customs Convention signed February 3, 2014 ;

• The protection of economic operators, without prejudice to national laws on the subject, especially in relation to the granting of visas to individuals who fall under this category ;

• The promotion and preservation of an environment favorable to enterprise development and mutually beneficial trade relations ;

The two men agreed on the need to deepen further issues relating to the modalities of cross-border trade, including the number of days of markets and the number of points of official passage of goods.

Wilson Laleau and Jose Castillo Del Saviñón agreed to create a binational Business Council to develop joint mechanisms to promote greater cooperation between the business communities of both countries. In addition, they plan to set up a monitoring mechanism to avoid technical barriers to trade, which are not consistent with international standards and they are also committed to promote activities of common interest including: trade missions, industrial fairs, market research...

The two Ministers agreed to meet again in two weeks for further discussions.

Moreover, this same day in Santo Domingo, Stéphanie Balmir Villedrouin, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Industry has signed a memorandum of cooperation with his Dominican counterpart Francisco Javier Garcia, on training within the development of tourism in the two countries.

HL/ S/ HaitiLibre