{"id":350701,"date":"2010-02-22T12:12:11","date_gmt":"2010-02-22T17:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldtradelaw.typepad.com\/ielpblog\/2010\/02\/will-trade-aid-haiti.html"},"modified":"2010-02-22T12:12:11","modified_gmt":"2010-02-22T17:12:11","slug":"will-trade-aid-haiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/350701","title":{"rendered":"Will Trade Aid Haiti?"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the AP<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Jordanie Pinquie Rebeca leans forward and guides a piece of suit-jacket wool and its silky lining into a sewing machine, where \u2014 bat! bat! bat! \u2014 they're bound together to be hemmed.<\/p>\n

If she does this for eight hours, she will earn $3.09. Her boss will ship the pinstriped suit she helped make to the United States, tariff-free. There a shopper will buy it from JoS. A. Bank Clothiers for $550.<\/p>\n

In the quest to rebuild Haiti<\/span>, the international community and business leaders are dusting off a pre-quake plan to expand its low-wage garment assembly industry as a linchpin of recovery. President Barack Obama's administration is on board, encouraging U.S. retailers to obtain from Haiti at least 1 percent of the clothes they sell.<\/p>\n

But will that save a reeling country whose economy must be built from scratch?<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Garments are central to the economic growth plan<\/span> commissioned by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon<\/span> last year, a 19-page report written by Oxford University economics professor Paul Collier and promoted by former President Bill Clinton as special envoy to the impoverished nation.<\/p>\n

They say the sector could quickly produce hundreds of thousands of jobs thanks chiefly to two things: an existing preferential trade deal with the nearby United States, and cheap Haitian labor.<\/p>\n

The deal is the Haiti Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership<\/span> Encouragement Act, or "HOPE II." Passed by the U.S. Congress in 2008, it lets Haiti export textiles<\/span> duty-free to the U.S. for a decade. Last year, $513 million worth of Haitian-made apparel, the bulk of exports, was shipped with labels including Hanes and New Balance. Factory profit margins<\/span> average about 22 percent, according to Washington-based Nathan Associates Inc.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Others said relying too much on clothing assembly is risky. <\/p>\n

"The garment sector is creating trouble for the economy because of social tensions and the low wages," said prominent Haitian economist Kesner Pharel. <\/p>\n

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, himself an economist, said that while the garment industry<\/span> shouldn't be ignored, increased investment should be sought in more enduring sectors such as agriculture and tourism.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the AP: Jordanie Pinquie Rebeca leans forward and guides a piece of suit-jacket wool and its silky lining into a sewing machine, where \u2014 bat! bat! bat! \u2014 they're bound together to be hemmed. If she does this for eight hours, she will earn $3.09. Her boss will ship the pinstriped suit she helped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4125,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-350701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}