Bill Clinton admits that free trade fugged up Haiti

[malaise]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ruth-messinger/what-bill-clintons-mea-cu_b_517328.html
<snip>
Former President Bill Clinton said at a recent Senate hearing that he regrets the impact in Haiti of the free trade policies that became a hallmark of his presidency.

"It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake," Clinton said this month. "I had to live everyday with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did; nobody else."

Sadly, he's right. The rapid lowering of agricultural trade barriers in Haiti combined with misguided U.S. food aid policy allowed American agribusinesses to flood the country with cheap surplus rice and force tens of thousands of local farmers out of business. According to the Associated Press, six pounds of imported rice now costs at least a dollar less than a similar quantity of locally-grown rice. So how can a Haitian farmer compete? The past 15 years have shown they simply can't.

Prior to the era of so-called "free trade", Haiti could feed itself, importing only 19 percent of its food and actually exporting rice. Today, Haiti imports more than half of its food, including 80 percent of the rice eaten in the country. The result is that Haitians are particularly vulnerable to price spikes arising from global weather, political instability, rising fuel costs and natural disasters, such as earthquakes that register 7.0 on the Richter scale. In fact, since the January earthquake, imported rice prices are up 25 percent.

Today, the people of Haiti are speaking as loud as they can. They desperately want a voice and central role in the reconstruction of their country, including the ability to meet the country's nutritional needs with food produced by Haitians in Haiti. In fact, President Rene Preval, himself a rice grower, has asked for international food aid to be replaced by financial support for farmers and the re-development of the agricultural sector. Preval knows that sustained success in rebuilding depends on food sovereignty, or the ability for Haitian farmers to grow their own crops and feed their own communities.

[blm]

1. Then work to expose the 'mistakes' and CHALLENGE those fascists whose water you carried for decades.

You could do a helluva lot of good in the world if you'd drop your loyalty to Poppy Bush, Stephens Group, and UAE's extended royals.

[upi402]

2. "Next please"

:patriot: Thanks! Thanks a lot for that... I got steamrolled by pro-NAFTA New Democrats at conventions and you fuckers will NEVER be forgiven for enabling corporate fascism's rise in America.


effemall

[valerief]

3. Free Trade kills. nt

[malaise]

4. I wonder if he's watched the documentary

Life and Debt about Jamaica - same shit - different day.

[KG]

5. thank for the bush regime too, dumbass.

and a bunch of other fucked-up shit you signed off on.

[Barack_America]

6. It's fugged up this country too, Bill. nt

[sendero]

7. Exactly. n/t

[Fire1]

8. You beat me to it! lol!! n/t

[unkachuck]

18. yep....n/t

[ibegurpard]

9. not to denigrate Haiti but

does he really think it helped US?

[malaise]

11. It fucked up the entire planet

without doubt

[stray cat]

10. Great - it will become an oasis with one stroke of the pen!

their problem is free trade not corrupt government or poverty or anything else

[Eg-ptiangirl]

12. Same in my country

Same situation in agriculture and industry.

[Lagomorph]

13. What? Cheap imports ruin ecomonies? So it ain't so!!!

I've heard about it being an issue elsewhere, as well.

[jwirr]

14. In this small nation the world has a chance to do it right. LOCAL.

[branders seine]

15. I got news for Bill

free trade is fugging up the whole fugging world (unless you're one of the richest 400 or so)

[Libertas1776]

16. We fucked up Haiti

long before the Clinton Administration. Granted it largely started under a Democratic Administration, but it wasn't Clinton. Try Wilson.

[Elwood P Dowd]

17. Where is the DU free trade clan?

One or two of them almost always show up on these threads to demonstrate their stupidity and ignorance of reality.