For nearly two decades, the United States provided Haiti with a lifeline: duty-free textile imports that attracted American clothing manufacturers and created tens of thousands of jobs in the poorest country of the Western Hemisphere. On Wednesday, that lifeline disappeared, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

The expiration of the HOPE/HELP trade program is expected to wipe out what remains of Haiti’s largest industry, which accounted for 90% of the country’s exports, in a nation plagued by gang warfare that has fueled hunger, triggered a refugee crisis, and left the government on the brink of collapse, WSJ explained.