Haitian apparel would enjoy duty-free access to the U.S. market until 2020 under a bipartisan bill introduced in last week in Congress. The Haiti Economic Lift Program (HELP) Act greatly expands duty-free access to the U.S. market for Haitian textile and apparel exports and extends existing trade preference programs for Haiti through 2020.
Building on the existing Haitian Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement (HOPE) program, The HELP Act will help create sustainable, good-paying jobs in Haiti’s apparel industry by expanding tariff benefits for certain Haitian textile and apparel exports to the United States, co-sponsors said. Leaders in both the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees worked closely with the U.S. retail and textile industries to craft the HELP Act and both industries have expressed their support for the bill, co-sponsors said. In February, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk announced the Plus One for Haiti program, which calls on the U.S. apparel industry to source one percent of its apparel imports from Haiti. The bill nearly triples the amount of certain Haitian knit and woven apparel that can enter the U.S. duty free regardless of origin of inputs. That is meant to act as an inducement to U.S. brands, which often complain they can no longer procure the fabrics they need from U.S. suppliers or cannot compete at the prices those firms charge. Only one SME (square meter equivalent) of such apparel could enter the U.S. duty free for every two SMEs of qualifying fabric purchased from the United States.
