The New Trade Environment and Trade Performance in the Caribbean

World Bank

Washington, DC

关键词: AGRICULTURE;    AVERAGE TARIFF;    AVERAGE TARIFFS;    AVERAGE TRADE;    BENCHMARK;   

RP-ID  :  89532

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Caribbean countries face a rapidlychanging trade environment, which presents bothopportunities and challenges for economies highly dependenton external markets. The features of the new tradeenvironment include: i) redefinition of relations with theirmain trading partners, including the United States, whereCaribbean exports continue to enjoy preferential accessunder the Caribbean Basin Initiative, and the EuropeanUnion, through the recently signed Economic PartnershipAgreement; ii) the increasing economic influence of the newgrowth poles1 (Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China andKorea) ; iii) and the redesign of the CARICOM regional tradeagreement in order to implement the Caribbean Single MarketEconomy (CSME) as well as a number of preferential tradeagreements within the region. These changes are likely tochange the trading structure of the Caribbean countries and,through this restructuring, to have implications for thewelfare of these economies. Understanding these implicationsis critical in terms of designing appropriate policyresponse to the trade changes but also in terms ofeventually re-shaping trade agreements and policies.