Caribbean Export OUTLOOK 3rd Edition

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Clearing The Hurdles

logistics and maritime transportation in the Caribbean has been fragmented, as the Caribbean has not capitalized on the opportunities of using freight logistics and maritime transportation as a development tool for trade facilitation as logistics involves not just the movement of goods and services but the movement of supporting information. Figure 1 below shows the mapping of the various actors in logistics in the Caribbean with the levels of interactions existing among them.The red lines connecting ship and ship owner to port agent and port terminal represent the actual movement of goods and information in getting cargo into the countries and also getting goods out of the territories in the case of exports. Upon cargo arrival in port, the dynamics shift to intermediaries such as freight forwarders, customs brokers, third party logistics providers (3PL) and later truckers to provide the actual transfer of cargo from the port. The process is centered on customs personnel who can add another step in the process if it is suspected that loss of revenue has occurred. This step involves sending the cargo to be fully checked at the Container Stripping Station at the expense of the customer. Presently, many Caribbean countries do not have a container stripping station; however, some are moving to create one. This addresses the conflicting role of customs between collecting revenues, operating as an extension to the Ministry of Finance and that of facilitating trade as needed by the international logistics industry. Based on the processes in

many Caribbean countries, the cargo moves much faster than documents relating to it, as the process is cumbersome and presents very little opportunity to add value, thereby creating logistics inefficiencies. The major disconnect lies between customs and the port which are the main actors in the logistics chain and the other intermediary actors which are 3PLs, agents, freight forwarders, customs brokers, warehouses and truckers. Management and transfer of logistics information are poor as the process is manual, does not facilitate connection to the global networks, and do not provide value added services. A port community platform is a basic starting point to bring these actors together in a supply chain. Today,thestrengthofthe3PLcompaniesintheCaribbean is that they provide their own tracking and tracing system as a service to their customers so they can determine the status and location of their goods at any point in the process. This is not available in the case of customs brokers, freight forwarders and truckers. While 3PLs have capitalized their operations and provided the link to global logistics chains, distinctions between the other intermediary actors are nebulous. The difference between the larger customs brokers, agents, freight forwarders and truckers are limited as they all try to provide a “one stop shop” in response to the market needs for logistics services and to improve their bottom line. The operating environment is competitive and price sensitive.

CUSTOMS

CONTAINER STRIPPING STATION

TRUCKERS

FREIGHT FORWARDERS

WAREHOUSING

SPL

SHIP AGENT

SHIP OWNER

SHIP

PORT TERMINAL

Figure 1: Actors involved in logistics services in the Caribbean | Source: Pinnock, Ajagunna and Casanova, WHATT Vol. 9 No 1, 2017