Haitian textile treaty lesson on free trade

A program designed to assist Haitians to find jobs is a reminder of the complex issues of free international trade. Called the Haiti Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act, or HOPE II, the 2008 treaty allows Haiti to export textiles duty-free to the U.S. for a decade.

One result, as explained in an Associated Press story Monday, is that thousands of Haitians have jobs assembling garments for U.S. consumers. Most make about $3.09 per day. Such wages leave the workers in poverty, but for many Haitians the alternative to poverty is death.

Many of the textile jobs came from North Alabama. Like the North American Free Trade Agreement before it, the Haiti treaty eliminated tariffs that discouraged U.S. garment producers from finding cheap labor outside U.S. borders.

Some counties that two decades ago depended on the textile industry remain plagued by unemployment. Others have begun the transition to industries less dependent upon low wages.

Haiti’s earthquake helps us relax the “Buy American” nationalism that causes resentment when Congress considers trade treaties, but Haitians are not unique. Free trade comes at a national price, but the payoff goes to some of the world’s neediest people.