The CARICOM Private Sector Organization (CPSO) Technical Team met internally regarding the recent announcement by US President Donald Trump’s of sweeping tariffs on countries that run trade surpluses with the United States.
On April 2nd, President Trump announced that effective April 5th, a baseline 10% tariff would be imposed on imports into the US. This sweeping tariff impacts several Caribbean countries including St. Lucia, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Guyana, Haiti, Sint Maarten, Suriname, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Barbados, Cayman, Curacao, Bermuda, Turks and Caicos, Aruba, St. Vincent, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominica, Anguilla, and Antigua and Barbuda. Guyana faces a higher ‘reciprocal’ tariff of 38%.
In a statement on April 3rd, CPSO CEO and Technical Director Dr. Patrick Antoine acknowledged that these tariffs would impact CARICOM economies, but he maintained that credible analysis needed to be undertaken before a comprehensive response is provided.
“Several dimensions have now become important,” Dr. Antoine said. “The measures will have both direct and indirect impacts on CARICOM economies, beginning with exports, but rapidly on imports as well. In the case of imports, some of which are routed through the US to fulfill regional markets, the impact of the tariffs will be felt through higher prices – in a fairly rapid manner. But the impacts will also be felt sector-wide, agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, etc.
There will also be an impact on US consumers and the US economy, and this will have very negative implications on the Region’s trade in Services, particularly tourism. The CPSO analysis will look at the impact of the US tariffs from the perspective of opportunities for the private sector- not solely from the perspective of challenges.”
Dr. Antoine said the CPSO is committed to working within the spirit of the Community, alongside the CARICOM Secretariat, and other regional and international institutions to leverage the best resources to meet the challenges posed by the shift in economic and trade philosophy, by CARICOM’s most significant trading partner (the US).
With CARICOM formally designated as the sixth region of the African Continent, this occasion gives us an opportunity to reflect upon our historic ancestral ties and on ongoing efforts to strengthen bilateral connections between the member states of the CARICOM and the African Union.