Speaking to a UN Security Council meeting on Haiti yesterday, Deputy Permanent Representative to China’s UN Mission Geng Shuang denounced President Donald Trump’s imposition of a 10% tariff on Haiti as “not only cruel and absurd but profoundly heartbreaking,” Global Times reported today. The so-called “baseline tariff,” he said, is a sign of “unilateralism, protectionism and economic bullying” toward the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, which is in “dire straits.” As the Haitian Times reported on April 8, the 10% tariff could deliver a devastating blow to Haiti’s struggling textile industry, which is wholly dependent on trade with the U.S. and is the last functioning sector of Haiti’s formal economy.
Ambassador Geng pointed out that Haiti was the first Ibero American country to declare independence—in fact, its enslaved Black population revolted against French colonial masters—but whose history since then has been one of “many hardships,” including military occupation and economic exploitation. The U.S., he said, has been the chief “mastermind” in shaping Haiti’s political landscape, deploying troops, occupying the country, and “entrenching itself in Haiti’s political affairs.”
Reports by other speakers at the UNSC meeting provided shocking details on the security situation. Ana Maria Salvador, head of the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), warned that the country is reaching a “point of no return” as violent gangs seize control of neighborhoods once considered “safe,” London’s The Guardian reported. No effort by the Haitian state, in the form of a precarious “transitional presidential council,” will be “enough to significantly reduce the intensity and violence of criminal groups,” she warned. There must be more international support and increased funding for the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support Mission (MSSM), whose expansion into Haiti has now been delayed, because no financing is available. Dorothy Camille Shea, Chargé d’Affaires ad interim at the U.S. Mission to the UN, announced that the U.S. government is no longer in a position to finance the MSSM alone, as it has been doing for months.
Geng Shuang laid much of the blame for Haiti’s crisis on the United States. The creation of a “transitional” government a year ago, he said, was specifically a U.S. project, but now Trump’s government ignores the chaos and non-function of this so-called “transition.” Geng calls out the U.S. for doing little to stop the continued flow of weapons into Haiti from south Florida, although it has technically agreed to enforce a UN arms embargo. As for Haiti’s development, the U.S. has consistently cut development aid and grants while continuing to deport Haitians from the U.S. on grounds of national security. “Haiti’s future should not be sacrificed to the U.S. pursuit of its own strategic interests,” Geng warned, nor should “being too close to the U.S.” become a curse for Haiti.” The international community must continue helping Haiti to become resilient, to become more independent, strengthen its institutions, etc., for which China stands willing to work with all involved parties to play a constructive role, he stated.