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Agriculture is the principal economic activity in Haiti. Subsistence crops include cassava, rice, sugarcane, sorghum, yams, corn, and plantains. Most Haitians own and farm tiny plots of land, and great population density has caused rural poverty and is also a factor in the country's extensive deforestation, which has contributed to the degradation of agricultural land. Haiti's major exports are light manufactures and coffee; other exports include cotton, sugar, sisal, bauxite, and essences. The United States is the country's leading trading partner. Industry in Haiti consists largely of light manufacturing; products include refined sugar and other foodstuffs, textiles, cement, liquors, essential oils, leather goods, soap, and footwear. Some bauxite and copper are mined, but other mineral deposits have barely been tapped. Economic sanctions imposed by the United States and others to force a military regime to return power to the elected government, and later the government's inability to meet aid conditions, further damaged the impoverished economy during and after the 1990s.
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