Time to buy local, regional

EVEN BEFORE Donald Trump’s April 2 announcement of sweeping tariffs – which have upended the system of economic order and international co-operation in place since 1944’s Bretton Woods conference – it was a good idea to buy local.

But Mia Mottley’s call for the Caribbean to do precisely that is nonetheless timely.

"To our hoteliers, our supermarkets and our people, my message is the same," the Barbados Prime Minister and current chairperson of Caricom, said in a statement on April 4.

"Buy local and buy regional. I repeat, buy local and buy regional. The products are better, fresher and more competitive in many instances.

"If we work together and strengthen our own, we can ride through this crisis."

Necessity is the mother of all invention.

There used to be a time when the idea of doing what Ms Mottley is calling for was a theoretical nicety. That time is gone. Thanks to Mr Trump, Caricom has no choice but to act.

To be clear, we do not say this to glean a silver lining to the US president’s dangerous and reckless gambit with the global economy. There is no silver lining.

Local officials have noted TT has been hit with the lower end of "reciprocal" charges, with a rate of ten per cent.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry has also, in a preliminary analysis, said the tariffs will not affect 47 per cent of TT exports to the US due to exemptions contained in the executive order theatrically signed by Mr Trump in the White House Rose Garden.

It should also be noted that the trade agreements collectively known as the Caribbean Basin Initiative allow duty-free entry of goods from 17 regional states.

In 2022, this facility alone allowed $11.6 billion in Caribbean goods to enter the American market.

Yet, with the stroke of Mr Trump’s sharpie, all that might change.

There is no guarantee tariffs will remain at ten per cent. There is no guarantee the Basin initiative, previously due to expire in 2030, will stay in place.

The uncertainty generated by the Republican leader’s actions, which has set global markets into turmoil and wiped off trillions in value, is not the byproduct of his move. It is the desired result.

Speaking on Air Force One on April 6, after a weekend of golfing, he boasted countries were now "dying to make a deal."

It is the most expensive negotiating tactic in history.

"We may have to confront issues of logistics and movement of goods, but we can do that too," Ms Mottley urged. This is essential.

But Caribbean nations also need to grow their own food, cut off reliance on foreign commodities and boost indigenous production.

We must become self-sufficient in terms of energy supply, technology and innovation.

Valuable foreign exchange should no longer be allowed to haemorrhage to service unsustainable levels of demand.

Instead, we must lean into localised economies of scale within the Caricom market, home to 18 million people. The time is now.