Caribbean Review: Tariff Task Force First of Its Kind To Counter U.S. in Caribbean
andriy Onufriyenko
The Caribbean is a conglomeration of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and other collectivities that maintain economies that mostly depend on the influx of financial resources from elsewhere. Within a global economic system threatened by the volatility of an unpredictable trade policy unleashed by “Liberation Day” in the United States, Caribbean states are left to find solutions that protect their economies and preserve consumer confidence. The central consensus on the United States’ new trade regime remains that it casts the world into an uncharted era of economic uncertainty. This puts a Caribbean still reeling from major natural disasters and a period of major inflation, on the cusp of an artificial cost-of-living crisis collapse and an intensification of poverty.
In response to the imposition of reciprocal tariffs by the Trump administration, St. Lucia announced the formation of a new task force to monitor and evaluate the effects of changes to U.S. trade policy. This task force is composed of public and private sector actors alike to consult with the government on strategies to counter the new adversarial trading landscape that precedes them. On April 3rd, 2025 the Task Force held a pre-planned meeting, just one day after Liberation Day, and focused on discussing the effects of the tariffs, especially in terms of shipping rates and their macroeconomic effects on St. Lucians. In a statement regarding the tariffs, St. Lucian Prime Minister Hon. Philip J. Pierre remarked, “This shows that what happens outside of St. Lucia has an impact on St. Lucia.”
Under the new regime, everything imported into the United States from St. Lucia will be subject to a ten percent tariff whereas before, St. Lucian goods shipped to the U.S. enjoyed duty-free passage. Agricultural products like bananas, cacao, beer and refined petroleum which are key exports to the St. The Lucian economy has been subsequently taxed: a trend suffered by the collective CARICOM community in the Caribbean. Other economic leaders in the Caribbean like Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, have bashed the move calling it, “a blindsiding blow to our economic stability.” Given that the United States is St. Lucia’s top trading partner, as seventeen percent of all St. Lucian exports are American bound, the tariffs represent an upheaval of current economic conditions.
Another task force has also been assigned to evaluate the deportation of non-nationals in the United States given the recent crackdown by the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security. Given the international controversy that the illegal deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador has sparked in response to the unruly actions of the Presidents Trump and Bukele, the Task Force has also pledged to monitor the United States’ actions against any potential illegal deportations of visa-granted St. lucians. Currently within the U.S. there are around 20,000 St Lucians, which amounts to about eleven percent of their total population as of 2023. The task force on immigration is led by Hon. Jeremiah Norbert, Minister of Crime Prevention who has made a constant commitment to the protection of St. Lucians in his title capacity.
Commerce Minister, Emma Hippolyte, repeated in a press interview that St. Lucia had received no official communique from the United States in regards to the new tariffs but assured that the new task force had been diligently working on responding to their swift implementation. In the face of growing public outrage in St. Lucia, Chair of the Tariff Task Force, Hippolyte, also urged citizens to take preventative measures to mitigate the effects of increased prices and economic stagnation that will ensue in the ripple effect triggered by such trade policies. At the first task force meeting, Minister Hippolyte reported that a full-fledged list of recommendations had been compiled in a report to Parliament for review, passage and publication. It is yet to be seen the tools and levers that the St. Lucia's economy could leverage to counter the behemoth that is the United States but more importantly, the shortage of food that might result due to higher prices faced by importers is the national security concern paramount to the Prime Minister’s strategy of defense.
One strategy that the region might benefit from, if the chosen path is combative, would be to stand as a united front against United States tariffs despite the fragmenting effects. While leaders in the Caribbean like CARICOM chair Mia Mottley, Guyana Finance Minister Ashni Singh and St Lucia Minister Hippolyte have written letters, expressed willingness to negotiate and have emphasized a positive relationship with the United States, diplomacy must be coupled with resistance and preparation. Caribbean leaders must come together to find alternative solutions to combating the economic crisis that is coming to their shores. While St. Lucia has formed their own Tariffs Task Force as a tool for their Parliament to craft policy, CARICOM must work to enact their own coordinated trade strategy that targets American industries to force the Trump administration’s hand.
According to Peterson Institute for International Economics, President Adam S. Posen, “The more realiation, in pure economic terms, the more harm to everyone…” later stating also that retaliating countries usually suffer more deeply than the United States due to “knock-on effects”. An analysis of the tariffs at a surface-level shows the level of haphazardness in the Trump administration’s formula for reciprocal tariffs with some economic experts in televised interviews calling it, “absurd and a kindergarten level of understanding”. Many in the think tank and policy communities also express concern that President Trump illegally implemented arbitrary tariffs on all trade partners of the United States under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, an action being currently challenged in U.S. courts.
Many Caribbean countries expressed disappointment in the administration’s blanket and arbitrary tariffs even after Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s positive visit to the region. When asked by leaders like Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Barbados Prime Minister Mottley to exempt the Caribbean region from tariffs, Rubio defended the administration’s position of the imposition of tariffs as a way to reset the global economy. The Trump administration’s hardline approach to trade as a way to onshore manufacturing jobs back into the United States has been criticized by experts because of its wide-ranging and sweeping scope of effect to which has punished the Caribbean in a bullying manner. Although the CARICOM community does impose its own tariffs on U.S. imports, even some amounting to 40% on American industrial goods, the scale to which the Trump administration has affected Caribbean economies is dizzying.
In response to such tariffs, the Caribbean has an opportunity to strengthen itself in a global economy that is now challenging it to get back on its feet. While the United States uses a blunt force tool to attempt to bring the global economy to its knees, the Caribbean must find a happy medium of keeping itself open to the largest economy in the world but also protecting its own national interests. With the formation of the Tariff Task Force, St. Lucia is sending a message to the Caribbean that it will lead on this issue if no one else will. Economic crisis is on the horizon yet, St. Lucia is preparing itself to stay afloat.
