1940: Haiti

The coffee problem is the black Republic's chief concern, since the loss of the French market has cut off that commodity's principal outlet. Shipments to the United States in 1939-40 totalled 175,000 bags, but about one-third of the export crop for that year remained unsold. Haiti's quota in the United States market under the coffee convention (see EL SALVADOR) is 275,000 bags; outside the United States, shipments are limited to 327,000 bags. Adoption of this agreement would provide some relief but general economic prospects are not promising. Official figures for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 1940, show an import surplus of $2,541,200, compared with $973,100 for the previous year. A decline of 45 per cent in the value of coffee shipments, coffee being the island's main money crop, and an increase in imports due to the expenditures of North American contractors under the 1938 public works program financed by the Export-Import Bank account for the increase. The budget for 1939-40 balanced revenues and expenditures at 29,189,000 gourdes.

Partial suspension of amortization payments on dollar obligations through September 1940 has been permitted, under an agreement of July 8, 1938, with the United States, but interest service has been maintained in full. Haitian Government bonds held in the United States were estimated at the end of 1939 at $5,700,000 principal. In addition, North American direct investments in sugar, the island's second export crop, banana and sisal plantations total about $9,671,000.

Relations with the Dominican Republic have become more or less permanently stabilized.