According to a recent study, 1/10 of Haiti’s GDP comes from the garment industry. A report released by the Progressive Policy Institute goes even further to point out one of the key arguments for granting Haiti preferential trade status:

While Haiti is the hemisphere’s poorest nation and that upwards of 80% of Haiti’s 8 million people earn less than $2 per day, a garment worker that earns $4 per day is in the 80th percentile of top earners in the country.

Click here to read the rest of the article. It puts into perspective the great potential a trade measure such as HOPE or HERO (see past blog posts here and here) would have for the country.

The House leadership has created a omnibus bill, HR 6346 that has many trade provisions that might be characterized as obnoxious, but is not what I would call a deal breaker. I would encourage all that read this post to read the full article and our past posts on the topic; contact your members of congress to express yourself. Haiti needs help, and there has never been a better time.