Less Poverty, More HERO (not HOPE)

Last week, Haiti's President-elect, Rene Preval, visited Washington, DC in an attempt to bolster support for US backed aid packages during his second term. While on Capitol Hill, he met with lawmakers of the Senate and the House Ways and Means committee to shore up support for the HOPE Act, a trade bill that would offer preferential trade status to Haiti on certain textile exports to the US.

President-elect Preval also mentioned his desire for passage of the HOPE Act in his March 29th OP-ED in the Miami Herald. Yet, as Haiti Innovation has maintained in the past (see Chris Schron's blog post from 11-26-2005 here), the HOPE Act is little more than a watered down version of the Haiti Economic Recovery Opportunity (HERO) Act, which is the only trade bill concerning Haiti currently being considered in the House and Senate (the HOPE Act has never been introduced for consideration and only exists in draft form). However, speculation amongst both foreign policy and trade analysts suggest that many fear HOPE will simply not offer sufficient economic incentive for foreign investors to risk Haiti’s endemic political instability.

While Mr. Preval’s strategy may be to take what trade preferences he can get, I’ll contend that it would behoove him, while dealing with a Haiti-fatigued US Congress, to start with the stronger of the two bills and allow it to be trimmed, rather than settling for the weaker and risk it being neutered completely.