The Trump administration tacitly overturned a command on Monday that had blocked a large Dominican sugar producer with political relations with President Trump from Shipping Sugar to the USA because he was charged with the company.
The US customs and border protection modified a “source delivery regulations” that had been granted in 2022 for raw sugar and sugar products from Central Romana Corporation and blocked exports to the United States from the company. On the Customs website, the order now lists as “inactive”.
Labor Right Groups commented on the change and said that Central Romana, whose sugar was sold in the USA under the Domino brand, had not significantly improved his work practices.
“We have not yet changed sufficiently to change the arrest warrant,” said Allie Brudney, a senior lawyer of the corporate accountability Lab, which monitors working conditions on Dominican sugar farms. “This is a disappointing result, but we will continue to support workers in their struggle for better conditions.”
A US official who refused to be called because the person was not justified to speak publicly, said that the decision to reset the rule and allow the company to start export have followed not specified processes. The officer quoted Central Romanas strong property and said that the decision was most likely made on the top levels of the US customs and border protection.
Hilton Beckham, a deputy commissioner of public affairs for customs and border protection, confirmed that the order had been changed, and said that the decision “documented improvements in work standards, checks by independent sources”. She refused to disclose these sources and cited reasons for confidentiality.
Ms. Beckham added that “Central Romana had taken measures to equip the concerns given in the initial WRO”, with reference to the publication of the source substances, and that customs officials were still “obliged to enforce US laws, prohibit forced labor and to continue compliance with compliance”.
In a statement, Central Romana said that the company “pleased that the administration of the US government was examined and agreed that there was no basis for continuing the publication of the source stick. In the past two years it has made it available to the US officers independent audits from external organizations and other documentation of its practices.
Central Romana, the largest landowner and private employer in the Dominican Republic, partly belongs to the Fanjul family, who has had an impact on US policy for decades.
In 2024, the Fanjul Corporation gave a donation of $ 1 million to make America great again, a political campaign committee that supported Mr. Trump, as well as a donation of $ 413,000 to the Republican National Committee, according to OpenSecrets, a non -profit organization that is pursuing money in politics. The company also made smaller donations to Democrats.
For decades, the central novel has existed of allegations of labor law groups that they have exposed its employees to poor working conditions. The Biden administration banned imports from the company in 2022 and said that it had information that indicates that the company exploited the employee in need of protection, did not properly retain their wages, and created them at excessive overtime and improper working and living conditions.
Civil society groups have also complained about the evacuation of families in the central Romana, who have violently cleared families from houses and threaten employees who complain about working conditions and provide residential living space without clean water or electricity.
Central Romana has publicly defended his practices and explained that it has been investing for years to improve the living conditions of its employees and to offer the best conditions in the industry.
Many of the company's employees are Haitian migrants, some of whom were born on central Roma farms. Since the Dominican Republic does not offer these employees to citizens, they are uniquely vulnerable, they cannot be able to search for other employment and to fear deportation, say civil society groups.
A delegation of the congress that the Dominican Republic attended and met with the workers last summer said that the country had made progress in combating some of the worst incidents, including child labor and human trafficking, but also that abuse continued in the industry.
A study published by the Ministry of Labor in September continued to show at will for abusive working conditions in the industry. The study stated that other Dominican sugar farms had replaced the central Romana as the main source of exports to the USA after the banned from 2022, but that these farms most likely had similar problems with forced labor.
In a press conference on Monday, Dominican President Luis Abincer said that the business was now “normal” again.
“Central Romana can now export as if it were always done,” said Abinader and called it “positive news”.
When asked why the restrictions had been lifted, Abincer said that it was a decision by the American government. We were not involved in this decision. “
Central Romana is the largest sugar producer in the Dominican Republic and, according to the US Department of Agriculture, produces around 60 percent of the country's sugar. In the 1980s it was acquired by members of the Fanjul family, Cuban Exiles, the sugar cane farms began in Florida.
The Fanjuls were prominent donors for both Democrats and for Republicans, including the bushes, Clintons and Marco Rubio when he was a Senator of Florida before becoming Mr. Trump's State Secretary. The Fanjul family, who also founded the Florida Crystals Corporation, is part of the American Sugar Refining owner, the world's largest sugar refinerie that sells sugar under brand names such as Domino and C&H Sugar.
In 2023 and 2024, Central Romana announced that there had been more than 1.1 million US dollars for lobby congress, customs officials and others in questions from the sugar sector, including the ban from 2022 against the forced work accusations.
The Fanjuls tried to use their political ties to reverse the order. In a letter from August 2023 to Chris Dodd, a former senator who was then a special advisor to the US State Department, Alfonso Fanjul said that the managing director of Central Romana caused the order to the company and the reputation of his family “irreparable damage” and was without a base.
Mr. Fanjul wrote that the company had carried out an extensive examination and came to the conclusion that there were no forced workers in his business.
“Chris, we have been friends for a long time,” wrote Mr. Fanjul in the letter viewed by the New York Times. “I ask you for help to ask CBP, to raise its sanctions against our company, which not only influences the financial well -being of our workers who suffer from the WRO.” (There is no evidence that Mr. Dodd intervened in the process.)
In a letter to US officials in March in March, more than 30 organizations of human and labor rights were concerned about the efforts of the Central Romana to avoid their work practices as part of the government's forced work.
The employees had reported that the company's efforts to fix the conditions were “superficial” and that some improvements that Central Romana had announced publicly, as the provision of health insurance and electricity for company accommodation, had been overestimated and was still not available for a large number of employees, the groups said.
“Almost every person interviewed in December 2023 said that if they were able to go, they were in the letter.
In contrast, the efforts of Central Romana to change order through political pressure, “extensive” and “deeply worrying”, the groups said.
“In this case, if this strategy for Central Romana proves to be successful, it will not only harm and disillusively harm employees, but also undermine the effectiveness of the foreclosure enforcement, as the letter was.