As we discuss new tariffs here in the U.S., a look now at how tariffs can make or break an economy.

In this case, Haiti, where U.S. trade policies forced the government to bring down tariffs on foreign goods,

which allowed American farmers to export their crops cheaply.

But that made it too expensive for Haitians to eat the food grown domestically.

Special correspondent Marcia Biggs and videographer Eric O'Connor have a look now at how this helped lead to decades of dependence on foreign aid.

It seems like a world away from the typical scenes of violence that have ravaged Haiti's capital.

The northeast region of the country is home to some of Haiti's safest and most fertile lands. But rice farmers here are fighting their own battle, struggling to compete with cheap imports.

Miami rice has lowered our prices, which means we don't have any advantage.

Miami rice is what the Haitians call imported American rice that has flooded their market since the 1980s,

selling it a fraction of the price of rice grown in-country.

It all began in 1986 when the International Monetary Fund agreed to provide Haiti with huge loans

in exchange for slashing tariffs on imported goods.

At the same time, the U.S. government began subsidizing American rice farmers, allowing them

to export very cheap rice overseas.

Albert Pierre-Josef is the son of a rice farmer.

I grew up in a family that lived off the land. My father had 15 children, and it is with

this land that he educated all 15 of us. Since I was a child, my father produced a lot of rice,

and many traders used to come and buy rice from him. The customs tariff that was reduced

on rice, so my childhood affected me a lot.

It meant that the amount of money my father used to make to meet our needs,

well, he couldn't bring that in anymore.

Like Albert's father, many farmers were unable to keep up and abandon the land.

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