22422: Vilaire: Responding to Marina: Real, Sustainable Development in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Vilaire@aol.com

Marina,

Charles Arthur has responded to your request for an alternative by posting
policy recommendations and prescriptions that were developed in the mid-90s by
Haitian development and civil society organizations. Unfortunately, they were
ignored by the IFIs and Haitian policy-makers. Contact any of these
organizations and they'll be more than happy to elaborate and share their vision for what
sustainable development would look like in Haiti. Two relevant groups come to
mind: Haitian Advocacy Platform for an Alternative Development (PAPDA), and
The National Association of Haitian Agro-Professinals (ANDAH).

I believe strongly in the strength of the model they've outlined. I believe
it presents a more sensible approach to Haiti's development -- especially since
the sweatshop model has never worked anywhere.

I wish to make a few additional points:

1. You write: "We need practical answers, not theory."
But Marina, all practical answers have some theoretical foundation. The
"practical" sweatshop model to develop Haiti's economy is grounded on a set of
clear, albeit faulty, theories.  Here are two key aspects of this discredited
theory:
-Haiti has no business producing food crops (e.g., rice) since it lacks the
comparative advantage. So, let big US companies produce rice and supply it to
Haiti in a zero-tariff environment.
-Those farmers who no longer produce food can now work for sweatshops. After
all, Haiti's comparative advantage lies in its dirt cheap labor. So, let the
sweatshops take over and let's have a happy marriage between cheap labor and
international sweatshops.

Here are two key aspects of the theory for real and sustainable development
in Haiti:
-Food self-sufficiency and security is paramount. In this sense, peasants and
farmers should be supported and protected. Production of basic food for the
national market is a major priority. Key sectors of the economy (like
agriculture) need protection -- not unfettered invasion of cheap imports.
-Industrialization should focus on ensuring the transfer of skills and
technology and linkages to the national economy.

2. Notes on Haitian agriculture and a few random things
Before you all start yelling about  the lack of effective demand for rice or
inability of Haiti to produce rice or accusing me of cooking up some
conspiracy theory about the impact of cheap US rice on Haiti, take a look at these
figures and come to your own conclusions (source: US Department of Commerce):

US Rice Exports to Haiti (in milled tons)
1985: 7,337
1987: 100,177
1990: 112,892
1993: 135,679
1995: 197,713

Furthermore, for the week dated May 6, 2004, we read that Haiti bought almost
half (21,400 metric tons) of US rice sales. To top it off,  we get this from
the US Department of Commerce "The amount of cereal grains exported to Haiti
in 2000 reached its highest point, totaling $82.7 million USD. Haiti cannot
produce enough cereal to supply local demand." [source: www.export.gov].

Please note: prior to this invasion of US rice, Haitian farmers were ABLE to
produce all the rice consumed by Haitians.

3. More facts:
-Of the more than $500 million that poured into Haiti in 1994-95, agriculture
got 1.1%, education less than 1%; the environment got almost nothing.
-Haiti has the lowest rate of import tariff of any developing country in the
world. You will not find a more open economy in the Americas. Not even the US,
preacher of economic liberalization, has a more open economy than Haiti.
-Haiti is the largest market for US rice in the Caribbean; the 7th largest
importer of US rice in the world (1997).

Think about this for a minute: The "poorest country in the western
hemisphere" figures among the top buyer of rice from the richest country in the world!
And that "poorest" country bought grain and cereals for $83 million.

The scandal is not that Haiti imported that much in agriculture from the US
The real scandal is that Haiti -- until the bitter prescriptions of so-called
experts -- used to produce these things for its dynamic and vibrant local
market. Yes, vibrant and dynamic, as American rice exporters have come to know.

Now with cynical debonair, we are told that "Haiti cannot produce enough
cereal to supply local demand." It's all so convenient, isn't it? Since Haitians
can't produce, let big American agribusiness do it for them. And since they're
not working the land anyway, why not dispatch them to sweatshops -- provided
they don't get ideas about workers' rights, of course.

Marx-Vilaire