(Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, Chair of CARICOM) Good day. I speak to all our Caribbean brothers and sisters today, not as the Prime Minister of Barbados, but in my capacity as chair of the Caribbean Community.

Our world is in crisis. I will not sugarcoat it. These are among the most challenging of times for our region since the majority of our members gained their independence. Indeed, it is the most difficult period our world has faced since the end of World War II, 80 years ago. Our planet faces a climate catastrophe that worsens every year. We have a cost-of-living crisis that has been bedevilling us since the disruption of supply chains, when the COVID-19 Pandemic triggered the shutdown of the majority of countries.

Misinformation, disinformation and manipulation are relevant. The mental health crisis is causing hopelessness among many of our young people, and regrettably, crime and fear are on the rise. We’re fighting wars in the Holy Land, in Europe and in Africa. Countries are distrustful of countries and neighbours are distrustful of neighbours. The international order, the international system, my friends, is in great danger of collapse, and now we are on the precipice of a global trade war.

Our Caribbean economies are largely reliant on imports. Just go to the supermarket or visit the mall or the hardware shop or the electronic store, and you will see that most of the things there are not produced in this Region. Many of those commodities are either purchased directly from the United States of America or passed through the United States of America on their way to the Caribbean region. That, my friends, is a legacy of our colonial dependence. Together with colleague Heads of State and Heads of Government, we have been working to diversify ourselves away from this dependence.

We’ve already started to reap some successes, especially in the field of agriculture, for example, but we still have a long way to go. As we do this work, we have to be mindful that those recent announcements that have been made in the last few days will impact us very directly as a Region and as a Caribbean people.

We are working and will continue to work to become more self-sufficient, but I want every Caribbean man and every Caribbean woman to hear me. This trade war and the possibility of a US $1 million to $1.5 million levy on all Chinese made ships entering US harbours will mean higher prices for all of us at the corner shop, higher prices at the supermarket, higher prices at the electronic store, higher prices for us at the shop, higher prices for us at the restaurant, higher prices for us at the current dealership and beyond.

A lot of Caribbean people will think that these things that you are seeing on television news or reading about are far away and “They don’t impact on me.” A lot of people think “I’m just a farmer”, “I’m just a schoolteacher”, or “I’m just a mechanic.” They say, “I live in Saint Lucy in Barbados”, or “I live in Portmore in Jamaica”, or Kingstown in St Vincent, or Arima in Trinidad or Basseterre in St Kitts & Nevis, or San Ignacio in Belize.

“These problems are far away from me, and they don’t impact me.” That is what you will hear them say. But the reality, my friends, is that if you buy food, if you buy electronics, if you buy clothes, it will impact you. It will impact each of us.

My brothers and sisters, our Caribbean economies are not very large. So, we are, and have always been, at the whims of global prices. If Europe and China and the U.S. and Canada and Mexico are all putting tariffs on each other, that is going to disrupt supply chains, that is going to raise the cost of producing everything, from the food you eat, to the clothes on your back, to the phone in your pocket, to the car you drive down the road, to the spare parts that you need for critical infrastructure. That means higher prices for all of us to pay, and sadly, yes, this will impact all of us, regardless of what any of our Caribbean governments will do.

We could lower our tariffs to zero in CARICOM, and it will not make a lick of difference, because our economies are small and vulnerable. This crisis, my friends, will impact not only goods, but it may also have a large spillover effect on tourism. We suggest that the region takes steps to sustain the tourism industry as likely worsening conditions and many of our source markets will have negative impacts on people’s ability to travel. We call on our regional private sector and the tourism sector to come together and to work with governments to collaborate for an immediate tourism strategy to ensure that we maintain market share numbers as a region.

My friends, I pray that I’m wrong, and I’m praying that cooler heads prevail across the world, and leaders come together in a new sense of cooperation, to look after the poor and the vulnerable people of this world, and to leave space for the middle classes to chart their lives, to allow businesses to be able to get on with what they do and to trade…

FULL STATEMENT FROM CARICOM’s CHAIRPERSON CAN BE READ HERE