Up to 31,000 Haitian garment workers may face unemployment as the US government stalls on renewing two vital trade schemes.
Expiring on 30 September, the US HOPE/HELP acts facilitate Haitian apparel exports to the US. With their continuation still unconfirmed, buyers are already shifting away from the Haitian market.
‘Because of the security situation, we have lost almost half of these [manufacturing] jobs already,’ reflected CTSP trade union secretary general Yvel Admettre on the gang violence in the nation’s capital that has killed thousands in 2025 alone. ‘The rest will lose them too, if there is no renewal of this law.’
The garment sector is the backbone of Haiti’s formal economy. Manufacturing worker Jhon Laforce warned New Internationalist that job losses could force young people to migrate or turn to prostitution: ‘Young people don’t have any alternative way of survival.’
