CARIFORUM and UK EPA Study

Trinidad and Tobago’s declining imports compounded the effect from its already declining commercial services exports, suggesting that the services sector component of the twin-island Republic’s economy was already in free-fall prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. This contrasts with Barbados and Jamaica, which both recorded significant positive growth in both commercial services imports and exports in 2019, just prior to the advent of COVID-19, perhaps confirming both their relative strengths and significant dependence on services as a contributor to GDP at the same time. Jamaica’s commercial services exports also grew at the fastest rate (13%) in 2019, and was tied with the Dominican Republic for first (9%) in relation to the growth of its commercial services imports, making it the best performing services-based economy in CARIFORUM in 2019, with exports outperforming imports by 4 percentage points in that year. The assessment of CARIFORUM’s commercial services trade trends, therefore, confirms that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant negative effect on both CARIFORUM’s services exports and imports, though with the latter declining at a lower rate, suggesting the dependence by the region on imported services. The data further shows that Trinidad and Tobago’s overall services sector has been experiencing persistent decline since 2017, likely due to the downturn in the global oil economy on the export side, as well as its transition away from oil and gas production to refining, which would have affected the demand for incidental services.

Table 27: Top Five CARIFORUM Services Markets (2008-2019) – US$ Millions

Top Five CARIFORUM Services Markets (2018-2020) - US$Millions

Trade in Commercial Services

Average Growth

CARIFORUM State Direction of Trade

2018

2019

2020 2005-2020

2019

2020

Barbados Barbados

Commercial Exports Commercial Imports

1 350.65 1 474.83

775.12 269.37

-3 -4 -3

9 7

-47 -52 -57 -26 -51 -35 -39 -25

522.82

559.34

Dominican Republic Commercial Exports Dominican Republic Commercial Imports

9 103.60 9 002.20 3 831.50 3 765.10 4 086.00 3 004.40 3 797.81 4 304.83 2 114.17 2 352.86 2 567.94 1 677.86

-1

5

9

Jamaica Jamaica

Commercial Exports Commercial Imports

-1

13

0

9

Trinidad and Tobago Commercial Exports Trinidad and Tobago Commercial Imports

799.64

790.81

480.95

-4

-1

2 488.77 1 855.34 1 395.85

7

-25

Source: WTO Database

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