Truckers take down border barricades

Caribbean News Briefs, 23 August 2003

Port-Au-Prince—Truckers removed barricades preventing traffic from crossing the Dominican-Haitian border at Malpasse on Friday, ending a four-day strike to protest the Dominican government’s tax on shipments to and from this impoverished country.

The truckers union said it had met Thursday with Dominican authorities, who pledged to impose the 5 percent tax only on shipments valued at more than $500.

The Haitian truckers are struggling to cope with an end to government subsidies on petroleum and 40 percent inflation this year, said Duclos Benisoit, head of the Haitian Public Transportation Federation.