Haitian Trade Bill Passes House

On Friday of this week, the US House of Representatives passed an omnibus trade package, which included the HOPE legislation that we have long hoped for (see past blog here). That bill passed 212 - 184.

Congressman Kendrick Meek, an Advisory Council Member to Haiti Innovation said this on the House Floor:

"Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of HR 6406, a comprehensive trade package that has great potential to create tens of thousands of new jobs in the Haitian textile industry. While the provisions in this bill are not as strong as in the legislation I introduced, I am relieved that after years of empty promises and delay that the Republican-controlled Congress finally has allowed a bill to come to the House floor that helps Haiti.

I have traveled to Haiti a half dozen times since entering the Congress. And on these trips I have met with Haitian business leaders who have told me time and again that the textile industry has suffered greatly and is inching closer to collapse.

The Haitian garment industry currently employs a mere 12,000 people-- a tiny fraction of what it once was. In Port-au-Prince, the capital, 15 factories have closed in the last two years. By failing to act, Congress and the Bush Administration have enabled Haiti’s miserable situation.

This bill is significant because one tenth of Haiti’s national income comes from its textile exports. While the vast majority of Haitians live off less than $2 a day, the average Haitian garment worker earns twice that. Bread-winners in Haiti often support large extended families; grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, children, and their children’s children often live under one roof.

Industry analysts estimate that the HOPE Act could generate as many as 30,000 new jobs. Haitians working in these textile jobs would not only possess the buying power to help stimulate the national economy, but the trickle down would directly impact the lives of tens of thousands of other people in this hemisphere’s poorest country. Haitians need to return to work, and that’s why I’ve supported granting Haiti preferential trade status for years.

The HOPE bill has the potential to revive this vital sector of the Haitian economy by allowing apparel assembled in Haiti using third-country fabrics duty-free access to the United States market. It is a scaled down version of The Haiti Economy Recovery Opportunity (HERO) bill, H.R. 4211, which I introduced in the House in 109th Congress.

It has taken this Congress far too long to act, but perhaps, at long last, help for Haiti is finally on the way.