U.S. Pulls Plug on Haiti's Last Big Industry [View all]

Source: Wall Street Journal

For nearly two decades, the U.S. provided a lifeline to Haiti: duty-free textile imports that drew American apparel manufacturers and created tens of thousands of jobs in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country.

As of Wednesday, that lifeline is no more.

The expiration of the so-called HOPE/HELP trade program is expected to crush what is left of Haiti’s biggest industry, which accounted for 90% of exports in a country mired in a gang war that has stoked hunger, generated a refugee crisis and left the government teetering on the brink of collapse.

U.S. lawmakers and Haitian businesses said the end of the program will deepen poverty and bolster gang recruitment while costing jobs in factories that produce clothing for well-known brands—including Hanes, Calvin Klein, Gap and Victoria’s Secret—as the industry relocates to Asia. The development could force desperate Haitians to flee to the Dominican Republic or board flimsy boats to other nations.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/u-s-pulls-plug-on-haiti-s-last-big-industry/ar-AA1NER2q