Barbados is being dragged into the tariff war initiated by United States (US) President Donald Trump, with goods produced here and exported to the US facing a ten per cent tariff from Saturday.
It means that Bajans and others in the US will have to pay more for Barbadosmade items and Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn says local manufacturers may either have to find a way to contain their costs, or avoid the higher duty by doing business via investments within the US itself.
The US is Barbados’ largest trading partner, and the island exports products to that country in varying quantities, based on information from the Barbados Statistical Service (BSS). Items vary each year but include rum and other beverages, pepper sauce and other condiments, biscuits, fish, flour, medical devices and machine parts.
However, Barbados has a big annual trade deficit, usually exceeding $1 billion, with the US.
In an announcement yesterday at the White House in Washington DC, on what
he dubbed Liberation Day, Trump declared a national emergency and said that he was invoking his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to introduce “reciprocal tariffs” on all countries.
Barbados is among countries which face the imposition of a ten per cent tariff on its exports to the US and this will take effect April 5 at 12:01 a.m. The ten per cent rate is applicable to “all countries” selling goods to the US.
Trump also announced that the US “will impose an individualised reciprocal higher tariff on the countries with which the United States has the largest trade deficits”, and the White House said the tariffs “will remain in effect until such a time as President Trump determines that the threat posed by the trade deficit and underlying non-reciprocal treatment is satisfied, resolved or mitigated”. (SC)
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