Apparel workers in Haiti can now look forward to earning social benefits after a Haitian mission of the Tripartite Commission for the Implementation of the HOPE Act visited the US to give a final shape to social benefits that are to be provided under HOPE II.
HOPE stands for the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act of the US, under which several benefits are provided to boost Haitian apparel sector, including provision of tariff preferences for US imports of Haitian apparels.
HOPE II is geared towards making the Haitian textile industry follow legal standards of work, create decent work environment, enhance investment and even encourage the formation of unions in garment units of subcontractors.
The visit of the Tripartite Commission is expected to increase allocation to Haiti for effective implementation of several programmes like US-DOL, Betterwork, TAICNAR and Solidarity Centre.
In the current month, a US delegation led by Sandra Polaski, Deputy Undersecretary at the Department of Labour, is likely to visit Haiti for further talks and implementation of social benefits for Haitian apparel workers.
Meanwhile, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has said it is committed to completion of Industrial Park North within the stipulated time frame. It added that it will soon issue an update about feasibility of other industrial parks.
IDB would discuss with officials of other countries to explore possibility of attracting investment for setting up industrial parks in Haiti.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India