14241: Hermantin: Miaim Herald Editorial (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Miami Herald Editorial
on Mon, Dec. 30, 2002

SPUR HAITI'S ECONOMY
BILL COULD ATTRACT MANUFACTURERS

When Congress convenes, it will consider a bill that could kick start
manufacturing and employment in Haiti. The measure deserves support. Its
passage would be a sign, long overdue, that the United States is ready to
focus on our hemisphere's poorest nation -- and is willing to lend a hand.

The measure also presents a humane counterbalance to a harsh U.S. policy
that repatriates nearly all Haitian migrants, branding them as economic
refugees. These are people who risk their lives looking for safe haven in
America, a nation founded on such dreams.

Most Haitians are desperate and indescribably poor. They are victims of
Haiti's political paralysis and also suffer from the United States' lack of
sustained attention. Political stalemate has blocked international aid to
Haiti. Drug-trafficking, highway robbery and armed gangs have eroded the
island's weak security apparatus. And the economy is in shambles.

In the 1980s, manufacturing was an economic engine for Haiti, supplying
50,000 jobs. Factory workers turned out shirts, lingerie, blue jeans,
electronics -- even baseballs for the major league. But when Haiti's corrupt
dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier fled the country in 1986, shaken manufacturers
fled, too. Many settled in Latin American countries that offered more
stability. Those that didn't leave then pulled up stakes a few years later
when President Jean-Bertrand Aristide temporarily was ousted in a coup. The
ensuing economic embargo in the early 1990s nearly stopped the manufacturing
engine cold. It has yet to be restarted.

The bill would exempt Haitian clothing factories from paying a U.S. duty on
fabric purchased from any of several foreign countries. Right now, Haiti's
factory owners receive such exemptions only on fabric bought from U.S.
manufacturers. Fabric from many other countries, however, is cheaper. U.S.
duty exemptions would make it cheaper still and might lure manufacturers
back to Haiti.

The measure's benefits would be twofold:

• It would create jobs where more than 50 percent of the population is
unemployed.

• It would give Haiti products to export, generating much-needed revenue.

In October, the rest of the United States was reminded just how desperate
Haitians have become -- something South Florida and its growing
Haitian-American population, sadly, know well. Scores of Haitians, crammed
onto a boat foundering in Biscayne Bay, jumped into the water, looking for
asylum. Instead, most were rounded up and held in detention, pending asylum
hearings.

Though touted as a deterrent to other Haitians who want to come to our
shores, this harsh policy is more stick than carrot, more punitive than is
necessary. An island economy that can provide employment and generate
revenue, too, would be a better deterrent to a mass exodus.

South Florida lawmakers should take the lead on this issue and persuade
their colleagues of the manufacturing bill's value.






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