Barbados Could Shift Food Imports Away From US

• Authorities and major businesses are drawing up emergency measures to protect citizens from surging prices, after new US tariffs came into effect last week and sparked warnings of further cost-of-living increases.
• Triggered by a new 10.0% duty on Barbadian goods entering the US, which came into force on Thursday as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping new taxes on imports from more than 90 countries—in his bid to promote domestic manufacturing, protect national security, and substitute for income taxes—the Barbadian business community has also started talks on a parallel plan to shift trading away from the US.
• The plan also includes shifting food imports from the United States, Barbados’ main supplier for decades, to Latin America.
• Describing Barbados as a price-taker due to its high level of imports, President of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) Paul Inniss said that in many cases, prices from the US “will inevitably be passed on to the consumer”. As a consequence, he disclosed that the BCCI and the government are collaborating on a strategic plan to try to ensure prices do not spiral, particularly as they impact consumers.
• Inniss pointed out that not all businesses will be affected equally, as some do not rely mainly on the US as their source market. However, the bulk of the country’s food is bought from the US, he explained, so those retailers and distributors who source such goods from there will be directly affected.
• He also noted that Barbados buys a lot of materials from the US, in addition to goods channelled through American ports from elsewhere. “There may be implications for some of us who manufacture, assemble and do stuff locally [regarding] how the tariffs will actually impact those things that we purchase elsewhere, that may come through the US,” Inniss argued.
• The chamber president indicated a plan to diversify supply by shifting to other sources, such as Latin America, in phases.

(Source: Barbados Today)