Caribbean JournalAbove: farmers in Haiti (UN Photo/Logan Abassi)
By the Caribbean Journal staff
The United States Congress should help foster agricultural imports from Haiti, according to an issue brief from the Washington, DC-based think tank the Heritage Foundation.
The report brief, written by the Heritage Foundation’s James Roberts and Dr Ray Walser, was part of a wider call for more US engagement in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Congress should promote increased US agricultural imports from Haiti by lowering tariffs and ending wasteful US agricultural subsidies for commodities such as sugar,” Walser and Roberts said.
The two called for Haiti to “continue to take advantage of US legislation” such as the HOPE Act, which covers textile imports, and the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act.
According to a recent report by the US Government Accountability Office found that imports under a government allowance programme created under HOPE had increased “substantially.”
Each of the programmes gives duty-free incentives for the export of Haitian products, according to the report.
Walser and Roberts noted that, with Haiti continuing to receive significant amounts of foreign aid, “it is all the more important for Haiti to increase exports and create jobs at home so that Haitians are not tempted to take to the seas to sneak into the US.”
Haiti’s agriculture has been working to recover after being severely damaged by Hurricanes Isaac and Sandy in 2012, which destroyed nearly 70 percent of the country’s crops, according to government estimates.
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Well it is a start BACK towards the right direction; however, Haitians as a people and government, diaspora included should be pushing this idea. using this idea as momentum. Converting this momentum into a wave of tranformation. We the people can also argue using Haiti’s former agricultural success as proof to how Haiti can help in the world’s future food shortage crisis. First, this will start by decentralizing Port-au-prince by spreading the opportunities to earn wealth across the entire country. Secound, modernize every major city to the quality and civil/political power of a normal developed country’s status. In that way a person won’t need to go to Port-au-prince for a proper leagal document or education,electricity and proper pronounciation. While these ideas are great, I am afraid the Haitian government is not. However, this is a start.