Statements On Introduced Bills And Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

By Mr. WYDEN (for himself and Mr. NELSON of Florida):

S. 2978. A bill to extend the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act, to extend the trade preferences made available to Haiti under that Act, to encourage foreign investment in Haiti, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, today I am pleased to introduce legislation to help encourage Haitian economic development, by promoting U.S.-Haitian trade and investment. The legislation, the Renewing Hope for Haitian Trade and Investment Act of 2010, would in part renew provisions of U.S. trade law that are currently scheduled to expire and which have been critical to the growth of the Haitian apparel sector, which sustains tens of thousands of jobs in Haiti.

Apparel is a core industry sector in Haiti, accounting for an estimated 25,000 jobs and 75-80 percent of Haiti's export earnings.

The devastating January 12 earthquake in Haiti caused widespread damage to the industry. The damage has caused transportation and assembly production bottlenecks, and compounded existing challenges such as lack of industrial space, poor road and port conditions, unreliable electricity, and the high cost of capital.

As of January 2010, Haiti's apparel industry is reportedly running at 50 percent of capacity as a result of the earthquake. Producers hope to increase production to 70 percent of capacity in the next 4-6 weeks, depending on improvements to electricity and water supplies.

Most apparel imports from Haiti come into the U.S. free of duties, because of provisions in the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act, CBTPA. Unfortunately, these provisions expire in September of this year. This expiration is dampening interest in placing additional apparel orders, so it is critical that Congress extend this important program, and do so expeditiously. The Renewing Hope for Haitian Trade and Investment Act of 2010 would extend CBTPA for an additional 3 years.

Increasingly, producers are using a new program called the Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement, HOPE, program to send Haitian apparel to the U.S. free of duty. While utilization of this program, which began in 2006, is growing, it faced early challenges and has since been amended. The amendments have been helpful, but extending this program would help send a signal to potential investors to go into Haiti and build the factories that will employ hundreds or thousands more Haitian workers. The Renewing Hope for Haitian Trade and Investment Act would ``restart the clock'' on the HOPE program and extend it through 2022.

Furthermore, a challenging investment climate and cumbersome Customs procedures for moving goods in and out of Haiti are imposing significant challenges to private-sector Haitian producers. The Renewing Hope for Haitian Trade and Investment Act would help in these areas, too.

Over the past few weeks, I have reached out to a broad group of stakeholders in order to identify the near-term challenges that face Haiti's apparel production industry. We focused on identifying short-term constraints that exist because of the January earthquake. I look forward to continuing to work with these stakeholders going forward in order to ensure quick passage of a bill that has a maximum amount of consensus between U.S. and Haitian producers, non-governmental organizations, and others.

I would particularly like to acknowledge the leadership of Senator BILL NELSON on this proposal. His keen understanding of Haiti and how U.S. trade laws work to help Haitian economic development was critical to constructing this legislation. I look forward to working with Senators NELSON, BAUCUS, GRASSLEY, and Chairmen RANGEL and LEVIN on this proposal and other ideas to spur Haiti's economy. Each of these members is a vociferous champion of Haitian economic development, promoted in part by thoughtful trade and investment policies.

I encourage all my colleagues to join in supporting this critical legislation to help Haitians who were flattened both economically and literally by last month's earthquake get back on their feet.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source