NewsWhore
12-21-2006, 05:00 PM
President George Bush signed the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Enhancement (HOPE) bill that offers greater incentives for investment in Haiti yesterday.
The president and vice president of the Dominican Association of Free Zones announced that the initiative will help create more than 75,000 jobs in Haiti and another 20,000 in the DR. Luis Manuel Pellerano explained that the legislation allows for companies setting up operations in Haiti to source apparel from anywhere in the world. In addition to permitting imports from Asia, the legislation also opens doors for the DR to export material manufactured here by Gildan and Hanes, as reported in Hoy. They explained that since Haiti is not included in DR-CAFTA, the provision would support economic development in Haiti. Pellerano and Torres explained that the estimated 20,000 jobs to be created here come from pre-production and finishing work that would be carried out in the DR. Labor intensive processes would take place in Haiti, where labor costs are much lower.
The Hope Act now benefits Haiti with the same political, economic and labor criteria and the same textile and apparel trans-shipment requirements as are in effect for Africa under AGOA. In addition to the current Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) benefits, it provides new rules of origin for apparel:
* 50 percent of the value of the finished product must be of U.S., Haitian, FTA, or preference program origin in years one through three; in year four, the percentage grows to 55 percent and in year five, to 60 percent; also allows the new test to be applied on an annual, aggregated basis.
* Caps the amount of trade under the new test at 1 percent of U.S. apparel imports in year one, growing by 0.25 percentage points per year through year five.
* Allows a "single transformation" rule of origin for bras, so that components can be sourced from anywhere as long as they are assembled in Haiti.
* Provides a small tariff preference level (TPL) for woven apparel, of 50 million square meter equivalents (SMEs) in years one and two and 33.5 million SMEs in year three.
* Liberalizes the rule of origin for wire harnesses, providing benefits if 50 percent of the value added is of U.S., Haitian, or FTA origin.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#16)
The president and vice president of the Dominican Association of Free Zones announced that the initiative will help create more than 75,000 jobs in Haiti and another 20,000 in the DR. Luis Manuel Pellerano explained that the legislation allows for companies setting up operations in Haiti to source apparel from anywhere in the world. In addition to permitting imports from Asia, the legislation also opens doors for the DR to export material manufactured here by Gildan and Hanes, as reported in Hoy. They explained that since Haiti is not included in DR-CAFTA, the provision would support economic development in Haiti. Pellerano and Torres explained that the estimated 20,000 jobs to be created here come from pre-production and finishing work that would be carried out in the DR. Labor intensive processes would take place in Haiti, where labor costs are much lower.
The Hope Act now benefits Haiti with the same political, economic and labor criteria and the same textile and apparel trans-shipment requirements as are in effect for Africa under AGOA. In addition to the current Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) benefits, it provides new rules of origin for apparel:
* 50 percent of the value of the finished product must be of U.S., Haitian, FTA, or preference program origin in years one through three; in year four, the percentage grows to 55 percent and in year five, to 60 percent; also allows the new test to be applied on an annual, aggregated basis.
* Caps the amount of trade under the new test at 1 percent of U.S. apparel imports in year one, growing by 0.25 percentage points per year through year five.
* Allows a "single transformation" rule of origin for bras, so that components can be sourced from anywhere as long as they are assembled in Haiti.
* Provides a small tariff preference level (TPL) for woven apparel, of 50 million square meter equivalents (SMEs) in years one and two and 33.5 million SMEs in year three.
* Liberalizes the rule of origin for wire harnesses, providing benefits if 50 percent of the value added is of U.S., Haitian, or FTA origin.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#16)