House vote preserves Haiti textile trade preferences

U.S. lawmakers have thrown a lifeline to Haiti’s last big export industry. Now all that is needed is President Donald Trump’s signature.

The House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a two-year extension of the country’s duty-free preferential trade program, the Haiti Economic Lift Program and Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement, known collectively as HOPE/HELP, following approval by the Senate in August.

The extension was included in the latest continuing resolution to fund the federal government through Dec. 11, which also extended the .African Growth and Opportunity Act.

The measure passed the House 370-48 and would preserve duty-free access to the U.S. market for qualifying textile exports from Haiti and sub-Saharan Africa through Dec. 31, 2028.

The Association of Industries of Haiti, the country’s manufacturing group, in a statement posted on its Instagram page, called the renewal “a significant milestone.” The group conducted more than 40 public-private missions to Washington, D.C., and carried out years of advocacy, it said.

“This progress provides crucial relief to the Haitian textile and apparel sector, its businesses and the thousands of jobs that depend on it,” the statement said. The association added it “remains fully committed to securing a long-term renewal of HOPE/HELP. Such a decision is essential to restoring investor confidence, stimulating the recovery of orders and enabling the sector to reach its full potential.”

The office of Haiti Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé issued a similar sentiment on its Instagram page.

“The continuation of HOPE/HELP serves as a vital tool for preserving jobs, supporting Haitian exports, fostering investment and strengthening the industrial sector, particularly within the textile and apparel industries,” the post said.

Long-term investment

For Haiti, where textiles have accounted for 90% of exports, the extension provides a measure of stability to a once thriving industry battered by political turmoil, gang violence and uncertainty over the future of the trade preference that once made the country attractive to American clothing manufacturers.

Still, supporters and business leaders had hoped for a much longer extension — at least a decade, if not longer — arguing that two years is not enough to persuade manufacturers to build factories, buy equipment and make the other necessary investments needed to rebuild an industry that has been struggling amid the departure of major international brands.

“We are happy to get the two years,” said Fernando Capellán, a Dominican businessman who runs the CODEVI Industrial Park along Haiti’s northeastern border with the Dominican Republic. “But we’re really looking for a 10-year renewal like it was before.”

Two years, he added, will not move investors to make new capital investments and create new needed jobs in Haiti. The sector, which employed 62,000 workers in December 2021, has seen the loss of more than 40,000 workers.

Capellán spoke from Washington, where he and other supporters of the trade preference are continuing to lobby lawmakers in hopes of building momentum for a longer extension during the lame-duck session of Congress. Restoring Haiti’s manufacturing sector, he argues, will require more than U.S. trade preferences, and he is pushing for broader efforts to restore investor confidence in the country.

An economic package being circulated by Haiti supporters calls for more support from multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank to help lower high insurance costs, and a low-cost electronic wallet for paying workers and reducing factories’ reliance on cash. It also calls for a long-term or permanent HOPE/HELP program, at least 20 years of tax exemptions for companies located in industrial parks, an overhaul of Haiti’s labor code — which has remained largely unchanged since 1961 — and improvements to electricity, insurance and border infrastructure.

The proposal argues that uncertainty surrounding the duty-free access already contributed to the departure of major brands like Fruit of the Loom, Victoria’s Secret, La-Z-Boy, Caterpillar, Tommy Hilfiger/Calvin Klein, Lululemon and others, and if Haiti is to be competitive, it must offer incentives comparable to those in competing countries.

Cornerstone of Haiti’s rebuilding

The HOPE/HELP initiative was created in 2006 and Congress expanded the trade preferences after the country’s devastating 2010 earthquake, broadening the range of apparel that could enter the U.S. duty-free.

It soon became a cornerstone of U.S. efforts to help rebuild the country after the earthquake. The Obama administration, led by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, joined former president and United Nations envoy Bill Clinton in championing the Caracol Industrial Park in northern Haiti. The park was backed by $300 million in funding from the U.S. and the Inter-American Development Bank with Hillary Clinton personally recruiting its main tenant, Korean textile company Sae-A Trading Co., which operates as S&H Global in Haiti.

Envisioned to create 60,000 jobs, the company was down to 2,900 in late 2024.

The apparel industry in general in Haiti has contracted sharply amid the country’s worsening gang violence, repeated workers’ strikes over wages, political upheaval and nationwide shutdowns. The expiration of the U.S. trade preference had created further uncertainty as U.S. importers of Haitian-made clothing faced double-digit import duties.

U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Miami, who supported the renewal of HOPE/HELP, welcomed the extension, saying “Haiti will not rebuild on aid alone. It will rebuild through work.

“For the Haitian community I proudly represent, this means thousands of jobs protected, businesses staying open, and greater economic opportunity amid instability,” Salazar said. “Since my first term in Congress, I have built bipartisan support and pressed the administration for a multiyear renewal. This is an important victory for the Haitian people and for a stronger, more stable Western Hemisphere.”

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat and co-lead of the legislation seeking a longer extension, also welcomed the House vote.

“This extension is a win-win for Georgians and our trading partners in Haiti and Africa. It will lower the cost of everyday goods and improve our national security by helping stabilize the economies of our global partners,” said Warnock, ranking member of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness. “ This victory shows what is possible when we center the people in policymaking.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also applauded passage of the two-year extension of both HOPE/HELP and AGOA.

“This two-year extension is a critical first step towards providing the long-term certainty that American businesses operating in sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti need to make meaningful investment decisions,” Joshua Walker, chief international affairs officer, said.