Bill Clinton’s Trade Policies Destroyed Haitian Rice Farming, Now Haiti Faces Post-Hurricane Famine

In 2010, former President Bill Clinton publicly apologized for forcing Haiti to drop tariffs on imported subsidized U.S. rice during his time in office. It wiped out rice farming, seriously damaging Haiti’s ability to be self-sufficient. "It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake," Clinton said in 2010."I have to live every day with the consequences of the lost capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people, because of what I did." Six years after Clinton’s apology, Haiti faces a new food crisis in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. We speak to Ninaj Raoul, executive director of Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees and a board member of IFCO/Pastors for Peace.