In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton encouraged Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to open the Haitian economy to U.S. farmers by dropping all protective tariffs. This triggered a replacement of the native grown rice in Haiti by the cheap U.S. imported rice. This decision had an adverse impact on the Haitian economy where the Haitian farmers couldn't compete with the imported rice. Consequently, many Haitian farmers abandoned farming altogether and moved to the the major cities in search of better opportunities.

This policy has contributed to the problem where the majority of the Haitian population are concentrated in a few major cities in the country.

President Bill Clinton has apologized for this policy as he witnessed the devastating effect that his policy has done on Haiti agriculture and Haitian farmers