Enhancing India CARIFORUM Economic Relations and Prospects for Cooperation

the development of stable Caribbean Basin economies by providing beneficiary countries with duty-free access to the U.S. market for most goods.” The beneficiary countries of the CBRA are the following- Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Curacao, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. The total trade of CARIFORUM countries has grown by more than three-fold since the turn of century. Total trade in merchandise goods peaked at US$ 94.7 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic shook the world and international trade collapsed as countries locked down borders to contain the spread of the coronavirus (Figure 2) . Even then, exports have shown greater resilience compared to imports, which has meant that trade deficit has declined. However, the region faces increasing challenges with respect to globalization. The CARIFORUM’s share of world merchandise exports has been declining steadily, falling from 3 percent in the 1970s to nearly a quarter percent in 2012 and the share has remained around the same figure since then. The region’s integration into the world economy has been much slower than some other countries in the LAC region, and developing countries outside the region, that had similar levels of global integration 30 years ago 16 .

Figure 2: CARIFORUM Countries’ Trade Over the Years (US$ billion)

Source: ITC Trademap; India Exim Bank Analysis

16 Trade Matters- New Opportunities for the Caribbean, The World Bank Group 2015

14

Enhancing India-CARIFORUM Economic Relations and Prospects for Cooperation