Abstract
In the aftermath of the 2010 Haitian earthquake, various neoliberal strategies have been advanced to help in short-term disaster mitigation and reconstruction, as well as more long-term improvements in the country’s overall economic integration and growth. One such strategy has been focused on revitalizing the country’s apparel assembly industries through an aggressive expansion of export processing zones (EPZs). The disaster, it appears, represented an important opportunity to improve economic conditions by reorganizing the country’s role in the global apparel commodity chain. However, this reorganization conflicts with the preferences of US textile and apparel producers who have used trade preference programs to position Haiti as an off-shore apparel assembly hub. An examination of trade policies enacted in response to a series of disasters reveals the continued shift of power from the traditional textiles protectionist bloc to more transnationallyoriented apparel producers. This study traces these conflictual business interests within the context of global supply chains, transnational capitalism, and enduring US national economic interests. Ultimately, the 2010 Haitian earthquake represents a redefinition of the country’s role in the apparel commodity chain; a role within a global network defined by locationally fluid, sweatshop production.
Highlights
The 2010 Haitian earthquake represents a redefinition of the country’s role in the apparel commodity chain; a role within a global network defined by locationally fluid, sweatshop production
With 80% of the population living in poverty, over 50% living in abject poverty, and rural migration adding to the hordes of unemployed already in cramped urban spaces, catastrophe and crisis inevitably met in the streets of the Haitian capital
By the Spring of 2008, with the unease over the current political situation growing and the drastic price increase in staple products being felt by consumers, UN Peacekeepers and discontent Haitians violently clashed in the city streets
Summary
With 80% of the population living in poverty, over 50% living in abject poverty, and rural migration adding to the hordes of unemployed already in cramped urban spaces, catastrophe and crisis inevitably met in the streets of the Haitian capital. Responding to the latest natural disaster, the 2010 Haitian Economic Lift Program (HELP) Act represents further policy opening for a transnational coalition of large US retailers, Asian suppliers, and advocates of industrial upgrading What they all share is a preference for flexible, decentralized production networks and global sourcing arrangements. The apparel industry, is labor-intensive and more susceptible to the globalization of production processes and the emergence of developing countries as significant cut, make, and trim sites For this reason, large apparel manufacturers and purchasing retailers were more receptive of trade liberalization, corporate downsizing and the outsourcing of garment assembly. These firms supply intermediate inputs (cut fabric, thread, buttons, and other trim) to extensive networks of offshore suppliers, typically located in neighboring countries with reciprocal trade agreements that allow goods assembled offshore to be re-imported with tariff charged only on the value added by foreign labor (Gereffi 1999: 48)
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