Thursday, April 16, 2009

Unfortunately hope for Haiti is still dependant on America?

A comment, if I may, on the much-lauded Hope II Act: what in the world? Creating a friendly environment for sweatshop labor that increases Haiti's dependency on foreign markets aka neocolonialism (and let's not forget the insidious link between free trade and foreign aid) is going to stabilize this country? C'mon, let's try to do something that doesn't only benefit us for a change.

For those of you who don't know about Hope II and are interested: the Hope II Act is U.S. trade legislation that grants Haitian exports free access to U.S. markets with the intention of revitalizing the Haitian economy, the garment industry in particular.

p.s. Regardless of whether or not I am not a proponent of free trade (I'm not): Per bilateral free trade agreements already in place, shouldn't Haiti and just about every other country in this part of the world already have free access to American markets? And if it's not free, but rather preferential access that Haiti is being granted - isn't this in conflict with said trade agreements?

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