U.S. Trade Policy and the Caribbean: From
Trade Preferences to Free Trade Agreements
J. F. Hornbeck
Specialist in International Trade and Finance
June 22, 2010
Congressional Research Service
7-5700
www.crs.gov
RL33951
CRS Report for Congress
P
repared for Members and Committees of Congress
U.S. Trade Policy and the Caribbean: From Trade Preferences to Free Trade Agreements
Summary
For over 40 years, the United States has relied on unilateral trade preferences to promote export-
led development in poor countries. Congressionally authorized trade preferences give market
access to selected developing country goods, duty free or at tariffs below normal rates, without
requiring reciprocal trade concessions, although their extension is conditioned on extensive
eligibility criteria and the use of U.S. inputs in many cases. The Caribbean Basin has benefitted
from multiple preferential trade arrangements, the first being the Caribbean Basin Initiative
(CBI), passed by Congress in the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act of 1983. Other
programs include the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) of 2000, which provides
tariff preferences for imports of apparel products, and the Haiti HOPE Act of 2006 (amended in
2008 and 2010), which gives even more generous preferences to imports of Haitian apparel.
Since the preferences have been implemented, U.S.-Caribbean trade has grown, but evaluations
of the early programs suggest that their effects were not as robust as originally hoped. Benefits
tended to be concentrated in a few countries and products, limiting export promotion and
deterring product diversification. Over time, benefits have been “eroded” by multilateral trade
liberalization and other regional U.S. preference programs. Bilateral free trade agreements,
particularly the CAFTA-DR, have actually replaced unilateral preferences with permanent, more
attractive tariff reductions and trade rules for former CBI countries such as the Dominican
Republic and Central American countries. As the main exporters of apparel in the Caribbean
Basin, they were among the primary beneficiaries of the Caribbean trade preference programs.
In recent years, Congress had leaned toward short-term extensions of the Caribbean and other
preference programs. A number of Members seek a comprehensive review of these programs with
an eye on harmonizing and revamping their various provisions. Congressional concern over
eligibility criteria, simplifying rules of origin, targeting the least developed countries, and
standardizing benefits are among a number of broad issues being debated as part of the preference
reform agenda. In the 111th Congress, the discussion of extending the Caribbean programs has
been part of a broader reauthorization effort for all preference arrangements. In addition, there are
a number of issues and circumstances converging that may suggest the need for reorienting U.S.
trade policy in the Caribbean region.
The most effective trade preferences appear to be the apparel provisions provided under the
CBTPA and the HOPE Act, as amended. Both were extended through September 30, 2020, in the
Haiti Economic Lift Program (HELP) Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-171). These provisions, however, are
not well suited to the services- and energy-based economies of the smaller Eastern Caribbean
countries. Also, there is a reluctance by these countries to make the transition to an FTA without
some guarantee of a “development component” to the agreement. These concerns persist, despite
the promise of permanent market access and increased investment that an FTA holds out. The
Caribbean countries, long involved in dependent economic relationships, appear content to take a
cautious path toward any new trade arrangement with the United States.
For U.S. trade policy, any thoughts of achieving broader regional integration are challenged by
these circumstances. Broader integration may be difficult to reconcile with the needs of very
small developing countries, which are highly vulnerable to the vicissitudes of global economic
trends and may require new and creative solutions, particularly if U.S. policy is still driven by the
historical focus on development and regional security issues in addition to trade liberalization. In
the context of continuing with trade preferences in similar or altered form, or opting for an FTA,
the solution is not immediately obvious.
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U.S. Trade Policy and the Caribbean: From Trade Preferences to Free Trade Agreements
Contents
U.S. Preferential Trade Programs and the Caribbean Region....................................................... 1
Background: Early Trade Preference Programs...................................................................... 3
The Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act of 1983.......................................................... 4
Special Access Program .................................................................................................. 5
The Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Expansion Act of 1990........................................ 6
The Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act and NAFTA Parity............................................ 6
CAFTA-DR and New Parity Issues ....................................................................................... 7
The HOPE Act: New Trade Preferences for Haiti .................................................................. 8
Trade Effects of Tariff Preferences .............................................................................................. 9
Imports by Duty Category ................................................................................................... 10
Effects of CBTPA: 2000-2006....................................................................................... 10
Effects of CAFTA-DR: 2006-2008 ................................................................................ 12
Product Trends .................................................................................................................... 13
Country Trends ................................................................................................................... 14
Trade Preference Programs: Some Economic Perspectives ........................................................ 16
U.S.-Caribbean Basin Trade Relations: Policy Options .............................................................. 18
Allow Trade Preference Programs to Expire ........................................................................ 18
Reform Trade Preference Programs ..................................................................................... 18
Negotiate a Reciprocal FTA ................................................................................................ 19
Outlook..................................................................................................................................... 20
Figures
Figure 1. Map of the Caribbean Basin ......................................................................................... 2
Figure 2. U.S. Imports from CBI Countries, 2000 and 2008....................................................... 13
Tables
Table 1. U.S. Imports from CBI Countries by Dutiable Category, 2000-2008............................. 11
Table 2. U.S. Imports by CBI Country, 2000-2008..................................................................... 15
Appendixes
Appendix. Country Groups, 2010.............................................................................................. 22
Contacts
Author Contact Information ...................................................................................................... 23
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U.S. Trade Policy and the Caribbean: From Trade Preferences to Free Trade Agreements
or over 40 years, the United States has relied on unilateral trade preferences as an integral
part of its foreign economic policy. Trade preferences give market access to selected
F developing country goods, duty free or at tariffs below normal (NTR)1 rates, without
requiring reciprocal trade concessions. They come in many forms and are intended to promote
economic growth and development in poor countries by stimulating export promotion and
investment, and to encourage the use of U.S. inputs in foreign manufacturing. Trade preference
programs must be authorized by Congress and are usually done so for specific periods of time.
The Caribbean Basin (see Figure 1)2 has benefitted from multiple preferential trade
arrangements, the best known being those linked to the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI)
implemented on January 1, 1984. Since then, the growth of free trade agreements (FTAs) in the
region has signaled a shift in U.S. trade policy. The increase in reciprocal FTAs (particularly the
Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement—CAFTA-DR) with
even more generous trade benefits for Caribbean exports has the effect of “eroding” the relative
benefits given to countries covered only by the CBI programs, raising questions about the future
path of U.S. trade policy for those countries.
This report reviews unilateral preference programs for the Caribbean, discusses how they have
been affected by FTAs in the region, and considers trade policy options for dealing with countries
still relying on trade preferences and that may be considering whether to negotiate an FTA with
the United States.
U.S. Preferential Trade Programs and
the Caribbean Region
The United States has a long history of employing various types of trade incentives to encourage
specific trade activities. Motivated by commercial, political, and security interests at times, the
U.S. Congress has created unilateral trade preference programs that promote developing-country
exports, but are often structured so as to minimize the negative economic effects on U.S.
producers and workers. Over time, bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade agreements have
come to eclipse the importance of many preference arrangements, a trend that a review of these
developments will show has been particularly visible in the Caribbean Basin.
1 NTR stands for “normal trade relations,” a phrase adopted by the United States in lieu of the often confusing “most-
favored-nation” (MFN) term used internationally. Both refer to the application of tariffs on a non-discriminatory basis.
Tariff preferences are by definition inconsistent with NTR/MFN treatment, requiring a waiver from the World Trade
Organization (WTO). See CRS Report RS22183, Trade Preferences for Developing Countries and the World Trade
Organization (WTO), by Jeanne J. Grimmett.
2 Caribbean Basin countries include Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands,
Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica,
Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines,
and Trinidad and Tobago.
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1
Figure 1. Map of the Caribbean Basin
Source: Map Resources. Adapted by CRS.
CRS-2
U.S. Trade Policy and the Caribbean: From Trade Preferences to Free Trade Agreements
Background: Early Trade Preference Programs
In 1964, the United States Government initiated a preferential tariff program based on production
sharing. Production sharing is a cost-reducing business strategy that seeks competitive (price)
advantage by locating manufacturing processes in more than one country. U.S. firms specialize in
the capital intensive, technology driven stages of production, and outsource assembly and other
lower-skill processing to lower-wage countries. Under the U.S. production-sharing program,
foreign firms that import U.S. component parts and assemble or process them into finished or
semi-finished products may then re-export them back to the United States, with duties levied only
on the value added abroad (no tariff on U.S. content).3
U.S. firms benefit from production sharing by the required use of their inputs (to receive the tariff
exemption) and in retaining a portion of the global market for goods that might otherwise go to
lower-cost foreign producers that do not use U.S. inputs. Foreign firms using U.S. inputs benefit
from the tariff exemption, making their products more competitive in the U.S. market relative to
those of other producers who face a duty on the full value of their exports. This type of
production arrangement has been commonly used for automobile parts, electronics, and apparel,
among other manufactured goods.4
The Caribbean Basin and Mexico were early beneficiaries of the production sharing program,
with proximity providing a major advantage at that time. Lower transportation costs and quicker
turn around times have provided Mexican, Caribbean, and Central America producers with an
additional competitive factor, at least for certain niche markets, over their more distant, but often
lower-cost Asian competitors. Many Caribbean countries developed their export processing zones
around this program.
By the 1970s, the concept of preference programs for developing countries shifted. Whereas
production sharing was based on a mutually beneficial competitive business strategy, developing
countries had long advocated for unilateral trade preferences as a form of development assistance.
Under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the Generalized
System of Preferences (GSP) was conceived as a way for developed countries to respond to this
expressed need. The GSP permits developed countries to grant unilateral tariff preferences for
selected imports from developing countries to promote export-led growth. The U.S. program
provides limited tariff incentives for many, but not all products. The Caribbean region has availed
itself of both the GSP and production sharing incentives for many years. The U.S. GSP program
requires periodic renewal by Congress and was last reauthorized through December 31, 2010.5
The tariff preference model as development strategy continued to evolve in the 1980s. The next
step targeted specific regions of the world for deeper preferences than those accorded under the
GSP, a strategy driven by security, as well as economic and political interests of the United States.
3 Initially defined under Item 807 of the U.S. tariff schedule and later in Chapter 98 of the U.S. Harmonized Tariff
Schedule (HTS). United States International Trade Commission. Production Sharing: Use of U.S. Components and
Materials in Foreign Assembly Operations, 1995-1998. Washington, D.C. USITC Publication 3265. December 1999.
pp. 1-1 and 1-2.
4 Regional production sharing is also done by European and Asian firms.
5 See CRS Report RL33663, Generalized System of Preferences: Background and Renewal Debate, by Vivian C.
Jones.
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U.S. Trade Policy and the Caribbean: From Trade Preferences to Free Trade Agreements
Congress enacted the first such geographically targeted program for the Caribbean region in
1983.6
The Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act of 1983
The impetus to create a Caribbean trade preference program arose from concern over the region’s
economic collapse and concomitant political radicalization that materialized in the early 1980s.
The Caribbean’s Basin’s “proximity, vulnerability, and instability” has long made it of particular
strategic interest to the United States, a notion well established in U.S. political history dating to
the Monroe Doctrine.7 In light of this reasoning, President Reagan and the U.S. Congress initially
considered a comprehensive response to the Caribbean Basin’s troubles. Trade preferences would
emerge as the primary economic component of a scaled back alternative.
President Reagan unveiled the CBI in a speech before the Organization of American States on
February 24, 1982, arguing that ensuring economic and political stability in the Caribbean region
was vital to U.S. security interests. He proposed a controversial mix of tax incentives, aid, and
trade preferences. The idea was rejected by many, however, particularly import-competing firms
and workers. As a consequence, the first bill died in the 97th Congress.8 In the 98th Congress,
however, Congress acted promptly on the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA).9
Although it again drew stiff resistance from U.S. textile and labor interests, once scaled back to
modest duty-free treatment for only 10% of Caribbean imports, it passed with overwhelming
support in both the House (392-12) and the Senate (90-7).10 President Reagan signed it into law
on August 5, 1983 (P.L. 98-67) and the trade preferences went into effect on January 1, 1984.
The CBERA permits 27 countries to be designated by the President as beneficiary countries (24
eventually were—see Appendix), eligible to receive duty-free or reduced-duty access for selected
exports provided the countries meet specific conditions. Designation may be denied or suspended
if the country 1) is a Communist country; 2) has seized U.S. property without compensation; 3)
fails to recognize or enforce awards arbitrated in favor of U.S. citizens; 4) affords preferential
treatment to goods from other countries to the detriment of U.S. commerce; 5) broadcasts U.S.
copyrighted material without permission; 6) has not signed an extradition agreement with the
United States; or 7) is not taking steps to afford internationally recognized worker rights. Thus,
the unilateral nature of the arrangement is clear: meet U.S.-defined eligibility criteria and
selective imports will be granted trade preferences. No negotiation was involved.11
Provided a good is wholly the “growth, product, or manufacture” of, and imported directly from,
a beneficiary country, it may enter the United States duty free or at a reduced rate of duty. There
were, however, significant exceptions for articles defined by Congress as “import sensitive.”
6 Other geographically targeted trade preference programs would be created in the Andean Trade Preference Act
(ATPA) and the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
7 See Pastor, Robert A. Exiting the Whirlpool: U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Latin America and the Caribbean, Second
Edition. Boulder: Westview Press, 2001. pp. 19-20.
8 1982 CQ Almanac. Caribbean Trade Plan. pp. 54-55 and 129.
9 The CBI was conceptually a comprehensive program, but only the tariff preferences were codified in the CBERA.
10 1983 CQ Almanac. Caribbean Trade Plan. pp. 252-53.
11 Some of these conditions may be waived by the President for national security reasons. Other requirements were also
in force. For a summary, see U.S. Congress. House. 109th Congress. 1st Session. Committee Print. Committee on Ways
and Means. Overview and Compilation of U.S. Trade Statutes. Part I of II. June 2005. pp. 23-24.
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U.S. Trade Policy and the Caribbean: From Trade Preferences to Free Trade Agreements
These included textiles and apparel subject to textile agreements under the Multi-Fiber
Arrangement (MFA),12 petroleum products, footwear, handbags, luggage, flat goods, work gloves,
leather wearing apparel, canned tuna, and watches or watch parts. Under the rules of origin, 35%
of the article’s value of labor and parts had to originate in a beneficiary country, although some
15% of the 35% could be of U.S. origin.13
A number of special provisions also applied. First, all Caribbean imports were still subject to
safeguard measures (resumption of tariffs) if the imports were shown to increase in quantities that
would hurt U.S. producers. Also, special treatment was accorded to some import-sensitive goods.
CBERA gave ethanol imports duty-free entry if produced under certain conditions14 and sugar
imports from the region entered under a tariff rate quota (TRQ)—duty free up to a specified quota
and then taxed at prohibitively high levels.
Congress also required the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) to produce
biennial reports on the effects of the preference program. The USITC found that for the first five
years, the impact was relatively small, with imports from beneficiary countries expanding at
slower rates than imports from the rest of the world. CBERA eligible products, nonetheless, grew
from 6.7% of total imports from CBERA beneficiary countries in 1984, to 7.4% in 1985, 11.1%
in 1986, 12.7% in 1987, and 13.0% in 1988. Even these numbers overstate the effects because
there was an increasing shift from use of duty-free access under GSP to CBERA, so the marginal
increase in duty-free goods that entered exclusively under CBERA was small.
Special Access Program
Under CBERA, textile and apparel products were excluded from receiving tariff reductions,
despite the fact that they were a major manufacturing export (and job creating) sector for the
region. Textile and apparel articles are considered highly import sensitive in the United States and
elsewhere, and their trade was controlled by quotas defined in bilateral textile agreements
permitted under the MFA. In 1986, President Reagan, by executive order, established a Special
Access Program (SAP) that granted guaranteed access levels (GALs) for apparel from eligible
CBERA countries, provided it was assembled from fabric formed and cut in the United States.
GAL shipments paid duty only on the value added abroad.15
Following implementation of the SAP, there was an sudden large increase in apparel imports from
CBI countries. Importantly, the increase occurred because of changes in U.S. textile policy, not
the CBERA. The increase in demand for Caribbean apparel articles at this time was evident
nonetheless, driven by their relatively low cost, production proximity, and higher quota
restrictions that Asian producers still faced. Tariffs on textile and apparel goods from the CBI
countries, however, remained a significant barrier and would not be addressed in legislation until
2000.16 The SAP did not apply after elimination of the world textile quotas on January 1, 2005.17
12 Recast in 1994 under GATT as the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC), it was the framework for the global
bilateral textile quota agreements that were finally phased out on January 1, 2005.
13 P.L. 98-67, section 213.
14 Ibid, pp. 26-28 and CRS Report RS21930, Ethanol Imports and the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), by Brent D.
Yacobucci.
15 USITC, Production Sharing: Use of U.S. Components and Materials in Foreign Assembly Operations, 1995-1998,
pp. A-4 and A-5.
16 USITC. Annual Report on the Impact of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act on U.S. Industries and
(continued...)
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U.S. Trade Policy and the Caribbean: From Trade Preferences to Free Trade Agreements
The Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Expansion Act
of 1990
Soon after the original CBERA went into force, concern over the effectiveness of its trade
preferences surfaced. Two issues stood out: 1) expanding the program to include a greater number
of Caribbean goods, and 2) making the program permanent. The amending legislation as initially
proposed would have extended additional tariff benefits to textiles, apparel, sugar, petroleum,
leather goods, and other items left out of the 1983 legislation. It also would have repealed the
September 30, 1995, termination date, making the duty preferences permanent.
As the initiative made its way through the legislative process, however, many of the preferences
that might have had the greatest economic impact on the Caribbean, like the textiles and apparel
provisions, were stripped from the bill. This change allowed the Caribbean Basin Economic
Expansion Act of 1990 (referred to as “CBI II”) to be passed as Title II of the Customs and Trade
Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-382). It made permanent the existing CBI preferences for beneficiary
countries, but extended them only to a few new products. Changes included a limited phased-in
tariff reduction for handbags, luggage, flat goods, work gloves, and leather goods not eligible for
GSP treatment, and duty-free and quota-free treatment for articles other than textiles, apparel, and
petroleum products that are assembled or processed from U.S. components. There were also new
limited benefits for ethanol imports and a few non-trade incentives. CBI imports were also given
an exception from antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) cumulation rules, making it
harder to show that U.S. firms had experienced material injury from those imports.
The Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act and
NAFTA Parity
On January 1, 1994, NAFTA took effect, altering the relative tariff situation in the region and
igniting a debate over parity issues related to treatment of U.S. imports under competing trade
agreements and arrangements. Imports from Mexico received much reduced tariffs or duty-free
treatment under NAFTA, which as it phased in over 14 years, conveyed to Mexico an
increasingly large benefit, both absolutely and relative to the CBI countries. Preferential access
for textile and apparel goods would be applied not only to the value of U.S. content, but
importantly, to the value added in Mexican production. Imports were subject to detailed rules of
origin generally limiting content of traded goods to materials made in the NAFTA countries, thus
excluding CBI countries.
The effects seemed apparent; two-way trade in textiles and apparel between the United States and
Mexico rose 218% from 1993 to 2002, some of it presumably to the detriment of apparel
production in the Caribbean.18 NAFTA eliminated much of the relative trade advantage that the
CBI countries had enjoyed over Mexico since 1984, and gave Mexico a distinct advantage in
apparel production, which was a dominant export sector for many of the Caribbean countries as
(...continued)
Consumers. Sixth Report. Washington, DC, 1990. pp. 1-6 and 2-9.
17 USITC. The Impact of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act: Eighteenth Report, 2005-2006. USITC
Publication No. 3954. September 2007. pp. 2-27.
18 CRS Report RL31723, Textile and Apparel Trade Issues, by Bernard A. Gelb.
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U.S. Trade Policy and the Caribbean: From Trade Preferences to Free Trade Agreements
well. Mexico’s much larger economy and production capacity for textiles and apparel became an
immediate threat to income and employment in the CBI countries, which began to lobby for U.S.
trade preferences equal to those of Mexico. This became known as the CBI/NAFTA parity issue.
While some in Congress were sympathetic to CBI country claims, particularly after the region’s
devastation from Hurricanes Georges and Mitch in 1998, it took years to gather the support to
pass legislation. The idea was to provide the CBI countries with NAFTA-equivalent preferences
until such a time that they could either accede to NAFTA, or enter into a similar reciprocal FTA
with the United States. Because textile and apparel trade was at the heart of the program, the
legislation had to overcome resistance from import-competing U.S. manufacturers. Nonetheless,
on May 18, 2000, following congressional passage, the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act
(CBTPA—P.L. 106-200) was signed into law, extending additional benefits for a “transition
period” of eight years ending September 30, 2008, or until a beneficiary country entered into an
FTA with the United States. Congress extended these benefits, unchanged, for two years in the
Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-246) and again through September 30,
2020, in the Haiti Economic Lift Program (HELP) Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-171).
Eligibility for CBTPA benefits include all those under CBERA, plus an additional emphasis on
countries meeting their trade obligations under the World Trade Organization (WTO) and making
progress toward some type of FTA with the United States. The most important provisions provide
that certain articles excluded from CBERA that meet NAFTA rules of origin may receive NAFTA
tariff treatment, specifically canned tuna, petroleum products, footwear, handbags, luggage, flat
goods, work gloves, and leather-wearing apparel.
Textile and apparel articles were also given essentially NAFTA-equivalent treatment. Those
assembled in beneficiary countries are eligible for duty-free and quota-free treatment subject to
rules of origin, provided they are assembled from fabrics made and cut from U.S. yarns.19
However, articles in which the fabric is also cut in the CBTPA country may also enter duty free, if
the parts are sewn together with U.S. thread. Limited amounts of knit apparel (except socks)
using U.S. yarns are also given duty-free treatment, as are certain brassieres, handloomed,
handmade, and folklore articles, textile luggage, and articles made from materials not available,
or materials demonstrated not to be available in commercial quantities in the United States. The
apparel duty preferences were later modified in the Trade Act of 2002, requiring that imported
knit and woven garments using U.S. fabric be dyed, printed, and finished in the United States.20
The CBTPA also prohibits illegal transshipment of textile and apparel products and directs the
President to have the USTR convene meetings with CBTPA beneficiary countries to encourage
movement toward a free trade agreement with the United States.
CAFTA-DR and New Parity Issues
When the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-
DR) began to be implemented on March 1, 2006 (P.L. 109-53), the trade preference landscape
shifted again.21 CAFTA-DR leads to nearly full free trade between the United States and member
19 For a summary, see U.S. Congress, Overview and Compilation of U.S. Trade Statutes. op.cit., pp. 32-33.
20 For details, see USITC. The Impact of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act: Eighteenth Report, pp. 1-10
thru 1-13.
21 The United States implemented the CAFTA-DR on a rolling basis upon each country complying with the
agreement’s legal and regulatory obligations. On January 1, 2009, Costa Rica became the sixth and final country to
(continued...)
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U.S. Trade Policy and the Caribbean: From Trade Preferences to Free Trade Agreements
countries when it is fully implemented. Provisions covering textile and apparel, the largest U.S.
import category from the region, were enhanced from those offered under CBTPA, and made
permanent. They provide for immediate elimination of duties on textiles and apparel that meet
rules of origin, which are even more flexible than in other preferential agreements and FTAs,
including the CBTPA. Stated briefly, provided components are sourced in any one of the member
countries, the finished assembled product may be exported to the United States duty free.
Generally, the intent of the agreement is to build on the history of increasingly flexible CBI
programs that allow apparel producers in the region to combine materials and production in
various ways (referred to as cumulation) and still receive duty-free access to the U.S. market.22
CAFTA-DR, much like NAFTA a decade earlier, created parity problems for other producers in
the region that cannot export under these more flexible rules of origin or reduced tariffs. Mexico
was one, but the United States agreed in January 2007 to harmonize the rules of origin as applied
to NAFTA and CAFTA, which will allow Mexican and Central American producers to use each
other’s inputs without penalty, further integrating the region’s apparel production.23 Haiti was not
included in this deal, which caused Congress subsequently to pass separate legislation covering
Haitian apparel imports (see “The HOPE Act: New Trade Preferences for Haiti” below). The rest
of the CBI countries, however, are at a disadvantage relative to NAFTA, CAFTA-DR, and Haiti
with respect to trade preferences in general, and their effect on apparel trade in particular.
The HOPE Act: New Trade Preferences for Haiti24
To respond to the Haiti apparel parity issue, as well as broader development challenges Haiti
faced as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, the 109th Congress amended the CBERA
legislation with passage of the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership
Encouragement Act of 2006 (HOPE I), Title V of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006
(P.L. 109-432). It was implemented on March 19, 2007. The act provided additional special trade
rules for Haitian goods in the form of duty-free treatment for select apparel imports made in part
from less expensive third country (e.g. Asian) yarns and fabrics, provided Haiti meets eligibility
criteria related to promoting core labor rights, human rights, and anti-poverty policies.
To address concerns that the HOPE Act was not having the full desired effects, the 110th Congress
enhanced the rules and preferences in the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (H.R.
6124/P.L. 110-246)—the Farm Bill, Title XV of which includes the Haitian Hemispheric
Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act of 2008 (HOPE II). This act extended tariff
preferences through September 30, 2018; made the rules more flexible and simpler; expanded
duty-free treatment for U.S. apparel imports of knits as well as woven articles; and allowed for
direct shipment of apparel articles to the United States from either Haiti or the Dominican
Republic. HOPE II also required that Haiti create a new apparel sector monitoring program
(Labor Ombudsman) to ensure compliance with internationally recognized core labor principles.
(...continued)
implement the agreement.
22 USITC. U.S.-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement: Potential Economywide and Selected
Sectoral Effects. USITC Publication 3717. August 2004. pp. 27-30.
23 Latin American Newsletters. Latin American Mexico and NAFTA Report. February 2007. p. 14.
24 For details, see CRS Report RL34687, The Haitian Economy and the HOPE Act, by J. F. Hornbeck.
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After the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Congress passed the HELP Act to provide even
more flexible and generous tariff preferences to Haiti. It extended the HOPE Act preferences
through September 30, 2020, enhancing those that appeared to be most effective at expanding
exports to the United States. The HOPE Act preferences operate differently than those in other
U.S. trade arrangements with the region. Unlike the CBTPA, of which Haiti is a beneficiary
country, and the CAFTA-DR, which does not include Haiti, the HOPE Act permits duty-free
treatment for apparel imports in limited quantities assembled or knit-to-shape in Haiti with inputs
from third-party countries, or those outside the region that are not a party to either a preferential
trade arrangement or free trade agreement with the United States. The competitive advantage
derives from allowing Haitian firms to use less expensive inputs sourced from virtually anywhere
in the world and still receive duty-free treatment. To the extent that this advantage is in place for
an extended period of time, it is intended to encourage increased investment in the apparel
assembly business in Haiti, contributing to growth in output, employment, and exports.
The duty preferences are significant because the United States is the main destination for Haitian
apparel exports, its dominant export sector, generating as much as 80% of the country’s foreign
exchange. In 2009, apparel constituted over 80% of Haiti’s total exports and 93% of exports to
the United States (74% knit, 19% woven articles), so the sector provides one potential avenue for
employment growth. The preferences also support textile firms in the Dominican Republic, which
have an expanding co-production arrangement with Haiti. Critics have argued, however, that this
advantage could come at the expense of other regional producers, although these effects have so
far been judged to be small.25
Trade Effects of Tariff Preferences
To promote diversified, export-led growth in CBI countries, the U.S. Congress has approved
multiple trade preference programs over the past three decades (production sharing, GSP,
CBERA, CBI II, CBTPA, HOPE I and HOPE II), as well as two free trade agreements (NAFTA
and CAFTA-DR). Each one amended trade rules and tariff preferences in ways designed to
increase U.S. imports from various CBI countries, although some had more far reaching effects
than others. Legislative action in the 110th and 111th Congresses focused on enhancing Haiti trade
preferences and extending the CBTPA, but the parallel trend in the region has been toward the
implementation of free trade agreements, particularly the CAFTA-DR.
The implementation of CAFTA-DR has had an overarching direct effect on the use of the
unilateral preferences, particularly those offered under the CBTPA, the main benefit of which was
duty-free treatment for select apparel goods. When the major apparel producers (Central
American countries and the Dominican Republic) began exporting under the CAFTA-DR, they
were no longer eligible as beneficiary countries under CBERA or CBTPA, which registered in the
import data as a large decline in imports under CBTPA. This change points to a critical analytical
point. In disaggregating the import data, it is important to distinguish between two types of trends
in the tariff preference programs, those that allow new categories of goods to enter the United
States duty free, counted as increased trade because of trade preferences, and those that switch
goods from one preference category to another (e.g. from GSP to CBTPA, CBTPA to CAFTA-
25 See United States International Trade Commission. Textiles and Apparel: Effects of Special Rules for Haiti on Trade
Markets and Industries. Washington, D.C. USITC Publication 4016. June 2008. p. 3-6.
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DR, or CBTPA to HOPE II), accounting for little net increase in imports from trade preferences,
as discussed in more detail below.
Imports by Duty Category26
Table 1 displays trends in U.S. imports from CBI countries since the CBTPA program began in
2000. The first line presents total imports from the beneficiary countries. It reflects data prepared
by the USITC that includes imports from the six CAFTA-DR countries only until they
implemented the free trade agreement, which occurred on a rolling basis between 2006 and 2009.
Hence, totals for imported goods vary from those in Table 2, which includes data for all 24
countries that are or were eligible for CBI preferences. As mentioned above, as the CBI countries
implemented the CAFTA-DR, they were dropped as CBERA or CBTPA program beneficiaries,
explaining the decline in total imports in line 1, beginning in 2006.
The rest of Table 1 is divided into three parts, with imports categorized as either dutiable or duty
free under various preference programs. There are two dominant trends that can be discerned
from the vantage point of either the dutiable categories of imports, sections 1 and 2 of Table 1, or
the duty-free categories, section 3. The first occurred from 2000 to 2006 and corresponds to the
CBTPA benefits for apparel imports. The second corresponds with the implementation of the
CAFTA-DR.
Effects of CBTPA: 2000-2006
In section one, the dutiable value, calculated duty, and average duty applied to aggregate CBI
imports establish an overall downward trend from 2000 to 2006, as would be expected with the
increasing use of preferences provided under the CBTPA. The exception is the rise in dutiable
value of imports in 2004 and 2005, which is associated with increased imports of petroleum
products from Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles, and the Bahamas, which are not beneficiary
countries under the CBTPA. The 2006 decline reflects an increase in duty-free imports that offset
this trend.
In the second section of Table 1, note that the dutiable value of total imports has fallen from
35.2% in 2000 to 20.2% in 2006, associated with two related trends: final implementation of the
WTO Uruguay Round commitments, which shifted some imports from the CBERA to the NTR
(other) duty-free category, and more significantly, the implementation of CBTPA for textile and
apparel articles. Note also that as dutiable goods fell as a percentage of production sharing
imports, at times, some appeared to show up as a rise in “other dutiable” category, or NTR (see
footnote 1) rates.27
26 This discussion draws primarily on a more detailed analysis in USITC, The Impact of the Caribbean Basin Economic
Recovery Act, Nineteenth Report, September 2009, as well as its earlier incarnations.
27 USITC. The Impact of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act: Seventeenth Report, 2003-2004. USITC
Publication No. 3804. September 2005. p. 2-12.
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Table 1. U.S. Imports from CBI Countries by Dutiable Category, 2000-2008
Duty
Category: 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
2008
Total Imports ($mn)
22,057 20,606 21,185 24,277 27,555 31,814 25,755 19,058
19,566
-Dutiable Value, ($mn)
7,778
5,590
5,462
4,902
6,261
7,580
5,214
4,224
4,906
-Calculated
Duty
($th)
915 578 496 513 457 483 190 na na
-Average Duty (%)
11.8
10.3
9.1
10.5
7.9
6.7
3.8
na
na
Dutiable Value, All
Imports (%)
35.2 27.1 25.8 20.2 22.7 23.8 20.2 22.2 25.2
-Production
sharing 12.7 6.8 4.5 3.4 3.5 2.5 1.3 b
b
-Other
dutiable
22.5 20.3 21.3 16.8 19.2 21.3 18.9 22.2 25.2
Duty-free Value, All
Imports (%)
64.7 72.9 74.2 79.8 77.3 76.2 79.8 77.8 74.8
-NTR
30.1 27.3 27.5 33.2 35.1 34.5 38.2 47.1 48.7
-Production
sharing 21.0 6.7 3.2 1.7 1.8 1.3 0.8 b
b
-CBERA
11.7 12.7 13.7 12.2 11.0 11.2 15.4 14.9 15.5
-CBTPA
0.7 24.9 28.6 30.7 28.8 27.7 23.3 14.0 8.7
-GSP
0.9 0.9 0.4 1.0 1.3 1.5 1.5 0.8 0.7
-Other
duty-free
0.3 0.4 0.7 0.9 0.7 0.6 0.7 1.1 1.2
Imports entering
CBERA+CBTPA (%)
12.6 40.2 47.1 42.6 39.7 38.8 38.5 28.8 24.3
Exclusively under
CBERA+CBTPAa (%)
6.8 22.9 31.5 30.2 30.1 30.9 31.7 25.5 21.1
a. Means goods would not have entered duty free under any other program.
b. Reflects zero or near zero use, subsumed under “other dutiable” or “other duty-free.”
Note: na = not available.
Source: USITC. The Impact of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act, Seventeenth, Report, 2003-2004. September 2005. pp. 2-10, 2-11, and 3-4, The Impact of the
Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act, Eighteenth Report, 2005-2006. September 2007. pp. 2-10 to 2-13 and 3-3, and The Impact of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act,
Nineteenth Report. September 2009. pp. 2-11 and 2-12.
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In the duty-free section of Table 1, the importance of the CBTPA program is visible in the growth
of U.S. imports of CBI goods from 64.7% in 2000 to nearly 80% in 2006, and in the large
increase in use of CBTPA program itself (line 12). Note, that there were only slight increases in
the percentage of duty-free goods entering under the CBERA, GSP, or “other duty free”
categories. Articles entering under the older production sharing rules, by contrast, have fallen to
near zero. Taken together, these data trends again point first to a switch in apparel goods in 2001
that entered under the CBTPA that had previously entered under production sharing preferences, a
modest increase in the value of new imports eligible for duty-free treatment, and increasing use of
the NTR duty-free category.28
In section three, the last two rows of Table 1 highlight that the total imports entering under the
combined CBERA and CBTPA provisions rose from 12.6% of total CBI imports in 2000, to a
peak of nearly 39% in 2006-2007. In addition, the amount that entered exclusively from these
preferences, that is, could not have entered under any other program such as GSP, rose from 6.8%
of total imports to 31.7% from 2000 to 2006.29 This trend again reinforces the observed sharp
increase in duty-free imports that occurred shortly after CBTPA was implemented, but also
suggests that the benefits of this program, as currently defined, may have peaked.
Effects of CAFTA-DR: 2006-2008
The second major trend covers 2007 and 2008, which coincides with the implementation of the
CAFTA-DR. The CAFTA-DR countries include all the major apparel producers whose goods
were once eligible for preferences under the CBTPA. The USITC reports that apparel from CBI
countries fell from 13.6% of total U.S. apparel imports in 2005 to only 1.0% in 2008 because
apparel from the CAFTA-DR producers no longer entered under the CBTPA. For 2008, the
CAFTA-DR countries (not including Costa Rica which did not implement until 2009) accounted
for 90% of total apparel imports that would have been part of the CBI statistics in the absence of
CAFTA-DR. This trend may be seen in the absolute decline in U.S. imports from the CBI
countries (line 1 in Table 1), the decrease in the use of CBTPA preferences in 2007-2008 (line
12), the major preference program applied to apparel goods from the CBI countries, and the
relative increase in use of NTR. In a separate trend, GSP and production sharing have become
nearly irrelevant.30
The full data set on duties for 2007 and 2008 is not readily available (lines 3 and 4), but there was
a noticeable increase in the dutiable value of imports and of dutiable imports as a percentage of
total imports (line 5). These trends also correspond with the decreasing percentage of duty-free
goods entering the United States shown in line eight, again reflecting the shift in textile and
apparel imports that entered duty free under CBTPA that are now imported under CAFTA-DR. In
addition, the last two lines of Table 1 point to the decline in percentage of goods entering
exclusively under CBERA and CBTPA to levels not seen since 2001.
Collectively, the data in Table 1 tell a complicated story, reflecting amendments to trade
preference laws and uncovering their overlapping effects of the beneficiary countries. For
example, the data reinforce the idea that for nearly 17 years the CBERA program was less
28 USITC, The Impact of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act: Eighteenth Report, pp. 2-11 to 2-13.
29 For more detailed data, ibid., pp. 2-13 and 3-3.
30 USITC, The Impact of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act: Nineteenth Report, pp. 2-1, 2-11 to 2-13.
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effective than might have been expected until the CBTPA was implemented. The CBTPA trade
appeared quickly, replacing trade entering duty free under production sharing arrangements. This
same CBTPA trade disappeared just as suddenly beginning in 2007, as the CAFTA-DR was
implemented. The increase in the NTR duty-free category appears to reflect that more trade from
the CBI countries not a part of CAFTA-DR now enters duty free under this category than under
either CBERA or the CBTPA, raising questions as to the effectiveness of these preference
programs for the smaller island economies. A more detailed analysis at the product level helps
clarify these propositions.
Product Trends
Not all CBI exports were affected equally by the tariff preferences. Apparel and energy related
goods, for example, accounted for 61% of U.S. imports from CBI countries in 2000, and received
the bulk of the benefits. This number remained about the same in 2008, but the composition of
products had changed greatly because of the shift in apparel goods entering under CAFTA-DR.
This shift in U.S. imports from 2000 to 2008 may be seen in Figure 2. Three products stood out
in 2000: mineral fuels (16.4%); knit apparel (23.8%); and woven apparel (19.0%). Together they
composed 59% of imports from the CBI countries. They remained the dominant U.S. imports
through 2006.
Figure 2. U.S. Imports from CBI Countries, 2000 and 2008
Data Source: U.S. Department of Commerce.
By 2008, the loss of the CAFTA-DR knit and woven apparel trade from the CBI calculations
showed up as a relative decline in those imports from 43% to 4% of total CBI imports, which
would have fallen to 2% had Costa Rica implemented CAFTA-DR that year. Mineral fuels, by
contrast, rose from 16.4% to 44.8% and inorganic chemicals from 1.7% to 11.2% of U.S. imports.
These increases do not reflect increased trade, but a change in the relative weights of traded
goods in the CBI mix. The mineral fuels group stands apart as a combination of products that
received new benefits under CBTPA or entered NTR duty free when the final Uruguay Round
commitments phased in and were therefore switched out of the CBERA category. The percentage
increase has also at times reflected large increases in energy prices, although this variable has
fluctuated in importance with recent swings in energy commodity prices. All liquefied natural
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gas, anhydrous ammonia, light fuel oil, and naphtha have NTR rates of zero and account for most
of the increase in the portion of duty-free NTR goods.31
Trends in the apparel industry are important because apparel is the key value-added Caribbean
export industry targeted by CBTPA. Table 1 indicates that there has been an increase in the value
of duty-free goods that entered under CBTPA as discussed above, which was largely attributable
to preferences that encouraged a shift in content mix of apparel that for the first time allowed
fabrics to be cut in the region. Yet, as the USITC has noted, from 2000 to 2006, U.S. imports of
apparel goods from the CBI countries declined from 13% of total apparel imports worldwide in
2002 to only 5% in 2006, and to 1% by 2008.32
Country Trends
There were 24 countries in the original CBERA group until the CAFTA-DR took effect (see
Appendix). Once implemented, the CAFTA-DR benefits superseded those provided under
CBERA and the CBTPA. U.S. imports from all 24 countries from 2000 to 2008 are presented in
Table 2, with those countries that have implemented CAFTA-DR highlighted in bold. Country
effects of the CBERA and CBTPA programs are compared since CAFTA-DR was implemented.
For 2005, the last year all 24 countries received full-year CBI preferences:
• 51% of U.S. imports originated in only the top three CBI countries; 90% in the
top eight;
• the number one exporter by value (25%) was Trinidad and Tobago, which is
explained by its mineral fuels exports (see also Figure 2);
• the other top exporters to the United States (Dominican Republic, Costa Rica,
Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador) are all major apparel manufacturers, with
Costa Rica’s trade increasingly dominated by semiconductors, which enter NTR
duty free (details not shown);
• the top six CBI exporting countries, not including energy producers Trinidad and
Tobago and Aruba, accounted for 95.6% of Caribbean textile and apparel exports
to the United States;
For 2008, the second year that CAFTA-DR was in effect:
• 81% of U.S. imports originated in only the top three CBI countries; 96% in the
top eight, excluding the CAFTA-DR countries;
• the number one exporter by value (45%) was Trinidad and Tobago, which is
again explained by its mineral fuels exports;
• Haiti has become the major beneficiary of preferences for apparel under the
CBTPA and HOPE Act;
31 USITC, The Impact of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act: Nineteenth Report, pp. 2-7. Other articles that
enter the United States NTR duty free are bananas, coffee, semiconductors, and medical instruments.
32 Ibid., p. 2-18 and USITC, The Impact of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act: Nineteenth Report, pp. 2-1.
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Table 2. U.S. Imports by CBI Country, 2000-2008
($ millions)
Country
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Trinidad
and
Tobago
2,228 2,380 2,440 4,334 5,842 7,891 8,362 8,789 9,030
Honduras
3,090 3,126 3,261 3,313 3,640 3,749 3,717 3,912 4,041
Dominican Republic
4,383 4,183 4,169 4,455 4,527 4,604 4,532 4,215 3,978
Costa
Rica
3,539 2,886 3,142 3,364 3,333 3,415 3,844 3,941 3,938
Guatemala
2,607 2,589 2,796 2,947 3,154 3,137 3,102 3,026 3,463
Aruba
1,536 1,034 774 955 1,776 2,920 2,845 2,995 3,179
El Salvador
1,933 1,880 1,982 2,020 2,052 1,989 1,857 2,044 2,228
Nicaragua
588 604 680 770 990
1,181
1,526
1,603 1,704
Neth. Antilles
719
485
362 632 435 922
1,119 782 809
Jamaica
648 461 396 423 320 376 528 721 729
Bahamas
275 314 450 479 638 700 453 504 604
Haiti
297 263 255 332 371 447 496 488 450
Panama
307 291 303 302 316 327 379 365 279
Belize
94 97 78 102 107 98 147 105 154
Guyana
140 140 116 119 122 120 125 123 146
St.
Kitts/Nevis
37 41 49 45 42 50 50 54 54
Barbados
39 40 34 44 37 32 34 38 40
St.
Lucia
22 29 19 13 14 32 30 33 26
Brit.
Virgin
Is.
31 12 41 35 17 34 26 43 11
Antigua/Barb
3 4 4 13 5 4 6 9 5
Grenada
27 24 7 8 5 6 5 8 7
Dominica
7 5 5 5 3 3 3 2 2
St.
Vincent/the
Grenadines 9 23 17 4 4 16 2 1 1
Montserrat 0a
0a
0a 1 0a 1 1 1 0a
Total
22,559 20,911 21,380 24,715 27,750 32,054 33,189 33,803 34,980
Total
less
CAFTA-DR
19,003
19,566
a. less than 0.5 million.
b. Bold figures reflect countries whose imports were not eligible for CBERA or CBTPA benefits because the
country implemented the CAFTA-DR. Costa Rica did not implement CAFTA-DR until January 2009.
Data source: U.S. Department of Commerce.
• imports from the five countries that had so far implemented the CAFTA-DR
agreement (bolded in Table 2) were valued at $15.1 billion, or 44.0% of total
U.S. imports from the 24 CBI countries. With the inclusion of Costa Rica, the
total would be $19.4 billion, or 55.3% of total imports from these countries;
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• if imports from CAFTA-DR and energy exporting countries are not included, the
remaining U.S. imports from CBI beneficiary countries amounted to 7.5% of
total imports, and only a portion of that amount would be eligible for tariff
preferences.
To summarize, the benefits of CBI trade preferences have been concentrated in a few key
beneficiary countries because of their energy- or apparel-related products, which has only
increased since CAFTA-DR was implemented. With little remaining exports of apparel, Haiti
being the exception, most preferences are being applied to energy-related exports, particularly
those from Trinidad and Tobago. Use of CBERA/CBTPA preferences is diminishing for many
reasons. First is the CAFTA-DR effect. Second, the remaining non-CAFTA-DR countries are not
competitive and so not producing in the apparel sector, meaning many of the CBTPA benefits no
longer apply. Third, as NTR duty-free rates are gradually falling to zero as negotiated in the WTO
Uruguay Round and other U.S. FTAs and preference programs are implemented, the “preference
margins” or main benefits from CBI preference programs are diminishing. Given these trends, the
CBI preferences may not be able to deliver on the employment and development goals originally
expected, raising important questions with respect to the relevance of Caribbean preference
programs to the remaining beneficiary countries.
Trade Preference Programs: Some Economic
Perspectives
Since first implemented in 1984, Caribbean tariff preference programs were intended to assist
beneficiary countries with enhancing their export-led development strategies. They have
combined U.S. trade preferences with their own proximity-driven niching strategies in a way that
has helped them maintain a relatively small, but important market share in the United States. It is
a strategy that may have led to selective export and economic growth, but the effects may have
run their course given the proliferation of large low-cost Asian producers and increasing
substitution by the United States of the reciprocal FTA for unilateral preferential trade
arrangements in the region. In addition, many economists are skeptical about the efficacy of trade
preferences as a development strategy, pointing to two areas in particular: design and
administration of the preference programs and weak trade effects.
Structural design flaws that limit the effectiveness of unilateral trade preferences is a common
concern. Trade preferences are paternalistic in nature; designed by developed countries to give
“generous” one-way benefits to developing countries, but as unilateral concessions, they are self-
limiting often for political reasons. For example, critics argue that33
• unilateral agreements are non-binding, often subject to renewal, and can be
denied or suspended (and have been) on a product or country basis, which can
hinder investors from committing more fully to developing economies;
33 Srinivasan, T. N. The Costs of Hesitant and Reluctant Globalization: India. p. 31. http://www.econ.yale.edu/
~srinivas/ and Özden, Caglar and Eric Reinhardt. Unilateral Preference Programs: The Evidence. In: Evenett, Simon J.
And Bernard M. Hoekman, eds. Economic Development and Multilateral Trade Cooperation. World Bank.
Washington, D.C. 2006. p. 190-192, 197-198 and 204-205, and CARICOM Secretariat. Caribbean Trade and
Investment Report 2005. Caribbean Community Secretariat. Georgetown, Guyana. 2006. p. 61.
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• eligibility criteria are based on foreign policy and political goals of the developed
country, often unrelated to enhancing trade performance, so they are not a
costless proposition for recipients; and,
• program details are subject to domestic economic pressures that typically seek to
exclude import-sensitive articles, which can cause the developed country to apply
higher than average tariffs on these goods for non-beneficiary countries.
The CBI programs are not immune to these criticisms. Beneficiary countries have no formal say
in the design of the tariff preferences, must lobby the U.S. Congress and Executive Branch to
make a case for their continuance, must comply with numerous foreign policy and political
requirements to maintain eligibility, and have been restricted from exporting key products under
preference programs. Results of the CBERA program disappointed some because of the many
structural limitations. Even with CBI II making the program permanent and the CBTPA adding
many new products to the list of eligible exports, including textile and apparel articles, success
has not been overwhelming.
Critics also fault preferences for their limited trade effects and the distortions they can introduce
into the economies of recipient countries and the global trading system. U.S. tariff preferences
offered to the Caribbean countries often34
• replaced tariff with nontariff barriers, usually quantitative restrictions, as is the
case for some goods entering under the CBERA, CBTPA, and HOPE Act;
• have complicated rules of origin that are costly, cumbersome to implement, and
frequently inhibit use of preferences;
• require use of relatively higher-cost U.S. inputs, offsetting the cost
competitiveness benefit of the tariff concessions;
• induce trade growth explicitly through trade diversion (Caribbean apparel instead
of Asian or Central American);
• can bias a country’s investment pattern toward particular industries, limiting
incentives to diversify their economies, and also prolonging other market-based
adjustments;35
• can induce recipients to limit export promotion and increase barriers to entry in
industries facing CBI quantitative restrictions, and;
• can act as a disincentive to support multilateral trade negotiations, given they can
erode regional preference margins.
34 Özden and Reinhardt, Unilateral Preference Programs: The Evidence, p. 191, and CARICOM Trade and Investment
Report 2005, pp. 61-62.
35 In fact, the two major industries affected show limited promise for growth. Energy-based exports are limited by
available resources and manufacturing is done on such a small scale as to be increasingly less competitive with Asian
producers.
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U.S.-Caribbean Basin Trade Relations:
Policy Options
For over 40 years, the United States has provided some type of trade preference program to the
countries of the Caribbean Basin. Given changing trade relations and policies in the United States
and the Caribbean, the time for evaluating these programs is ripe. In particular, with the largest of
the (now former) CBI economies implementing CAFTA-DR, an important question for U.S. trade
policy is what to do with the smaller, and most vulnerable, Caribbean nations that still rely on the
CBI preferences to some extent. Options include 1) allow trade preferences to expire; 2) renew
them as is or with more generous, targeted, and flexible rules; or 3) replace them with an FTA.
Allow Trade Preference Programs to Expire
One option is to allow the trade preference programs to expire. Congress has rejected this
approach to date and the CBTPA, perhaps the most effective of the programs, was renewed by the
111th Congress through September 30, 2020. CBERA is permanent and would require an act of
Congress to terminate. In addition, the CARICOM countries have expressed a desire to retain the
trade preferences, even though they have not been big users of them. Allowing the preference
programs to expire would likely raise the stakes in the debate over a potential bilateral FTA with
the United States, but it appears as an unlikely alternative in the near future.
Reform Trade Preference Programs
A second option is to consider redefining the unilateral preference programs in a way that might
provide more benefit to the CARICOM countries.36 This option recognizes that while the trade
preference programs have not been perfect, they have evolved over time in an attempt to become
more economically relevant to the countries they were designed to help. The evolution from
CBERA through CBI II to CBTPA supports this fact, even if the current preferences are being
eroded by free trade agreements and broader trade trends.
The central problem is that except for the energy and chemical exports, which constitute 80% of
CARICOM’s merchandise exports to the United States, there is little for the CARICOM countries
to take advantage of in the CBI preference programs. Apparel goods amount to slightly less than
5% of total CBI exports to the United States and the complexities of U.S. rules of origin and
Caribbean supply constraints raise doubts about the ability of CARICOM countries to expand this
sector significantly. Unless apparel rules of origin are relaxed even further, Caribbean apparel
exports would not be competitive with those entering under CAFTA-DR or from low-cost Asian
producers. One option would be to permit 100% duty-free, quota-free treatment for all Caribbean
exports, a policy advocated by some to support least developed countries (LDCs).37 Application
of such a broad tariff preference, however, might be challenged given many Eastern Caribbean
countries do not qualify as LDCs.
36 Rangaswami, Viji. Nickel and Diming the Poor: U.S. Implementation of the LDC Initiative. Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace. Policy Outlook. July 2006. p. 7.
37 Kimberly Ann Elliott, Open Markets for the Poorest Countries: Trade Preferences That Work, Center for Global
Development, April 2010.
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It is conceivable that the CBI programs could be amended to target the specific export sectors of
the CARICOM countries and perhaps deepen existing benefits for certain industries. The
opportunities, however, may be limited. The CARICOM countries are largely service sector
economies (e.g., tourism, financial services, professional services) and do not view enhancing
U.S. market access for goods with the same sense of urgency that many other countries in the
Western Hemisphere do, even if rules of origin and cumulation could be made more flexible.
Trinidad and Tobago, the country that benefits the most from CBTPA given its large energy
related exports, is also most likely to consider an FTA of benefit relative to the smaller island
economies. Still, there appears to be interest in exploring the revision of preference programs to
include services exports.
Negotiate a Reciprocal FTA
A third option is to consider a U.S. bilateral FTA with CARICOM. It could provide some appeal
if crafted in a way that would benefit the small Caribbean nations, but the difference in
commitments between trade preferences and an FTA could be a hindrance. FTAs operate much
differently than unilateral trade preferences. Trade preferences are unilateral concessions of one
country to another, offering little in the way of recourse to the recipient country if a dispute arises.
FTAs, by contrast, are negotiated agreements with mutual obligations and disputes subject to a
resolution mechanism defined in the FTA. Preferences are also limited commitments, usually
focusing on market access. FTAs are comprehensive, covering a vast array of rules, practices, and
obligations from investment to labor and environment provisions. Preferences are often time
limited and subject to unilateral suspensions, whereas FTAs are permanent arrangements, codified
by each member in domestic law.
An FTA would be consistent with U.S. trade policy in the rest of the region. The United States’
vision for hemispheric integration has revolved around the comprehensive FTA model as
implemented with Mexico, Canada, Central America, Chile, Peru, and possibly in the near future
with Panama and Colombia. If the integration path were to emanate from a harmonization of
these agreements, having an FTA in place with CARICOM would appear to further the broader
U.S. trade agenda. There is, nonetheless, significant doubt that a congressional consensus exists at
this time to pursue such goal.
The CARICOM countries, by contrast, are a diverse group of mostly island countries with vastly
different economies, and therefore, varying perspectives on trade policy and an FTA with the
United States.38 The more developed economies (energy-rich Trinidad and Tobago and tourism-
driven Barbados) are far more open to the prospects of an FTA than the natural resource-based
countries (Guyana and Jamaica) and the micro economies of the Eastern Caribbean, which have a
fearful reluctance to begin negotiations. All of the CARICOM countries, however, have expressed
some overriding concerns over the limitations of small economies to undertake the obligations of
an FTA without some type of “compensatory mechanism” to replace trade preferences. Among
the major concerns are:39
38 For a historical survey of the different trade regimes, see McBain, Helen. Challenges to Caribbean Economies in the
Era of Globalization. In: Knight, Franklin W. And Teresita Martínez-Verque. Contemporary Caribbean Cultures and
Societies in a Global Context. University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill. 2005.
39 Based in part on author interviews during a two-week trip through the Eastern Caribbean in 2006 and CARICOM
Trade and Investment Report, p. 61.
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• questions over the United States’ willingness to accommodate their need for
special and differential treatment (SDT), such as long phase-in periods to meet
FTA commitments, trade capacity building (TCB) assistance, trade adjustment
assistance (TAA), and perhaps a financial component to implement these
options;40
• the high transition costs of fiscal adjustment (from a high tariff dependency),
discontinuing protection for manufacturing and agriculture sectors, regulatory
harmonization in areas such as government procurement, intellectual property
rights, labor, environment, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) rules;
• supply-side constraints (dearth of arable land, small-scale production) that limit
their ability to take advantage of market access;
• a perceived lack of support for their growing services trade, particularly
movement of professionals, and concerns over U.S. agricultural subsidies, two
issues the United States is reluctant to address, and
• asymmetrical negotiating capacity.
Outlook
A number of issues and circumstances have converged that point up challenges for U.S. trade
policy in the Caribbean region. Among these is the renewed, but as yet unchanged, Caribbean
Basin Trade Partnership Act, the benefits of which have been eroded over time by multilateral
trade liberalization and new U.S. reciprocal bilateral FTAs. Further, these programs are little used
by the smaller beneficiary countries, which also have expressed a reluctance to move toward an
FTA with the United States without some guarantee of a “development component” to the
agreement, despite the promise of permanent market access and increased investment that an FTA
holds out. The Caribbean countries, long accustomed to dependent economic relationships,
appear content to take a cautious and leisurely path toward any new trade arrangement with the
United States.
For U.S. trade policy, these circumstances present a formidable challenge to any further thoughts
of expanding Hemispheric integration and raise a broad question as to what future congressional
interest might be for reforming these programs. In fact, broader integration may be difficult to
achieve and still meet the needs of very small developing countries. Their economies are highly
vulnerable to the vicissitudes of global economic trends and weather patterns, and may require
new and creative solutions to make the adjustment to full reciprocal free trade. U.S. trade policy
toward the region has also had a historical focus on development and regional security issues in
addition to trade liberalization, suggesting that trade liberalization likely will not be the only
factor to determine policy. In the context of deciding whether to continue with trade preferences
in similar or altered form, or opt for an FTA, agreement has yet to materialize.
The existing Caribbean preference programs are also part of a larger congressional debate over
preference reform that includes the GSP, ATPA, and AGOA. Congress has signaled that it may be
time to consider a wholesale review of the design, scope, and purpose of these programs,
particularly in light of evolving trade agreements and relationships worldwide. Although similar
40 CARICOM, Caribbean Trade and Investment Report 2005, p. 61.
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in some respects, the different trade preference programs have overlapping constituents and also
include countries with dissimilar economic features. These differences challenge designs to
harmonize and equalize the many unilateral trade preference programs.
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Appendix. Country Groups, 2010
A. Beneficiary Countries Designated under the CBERA:41
Antigua and Barbuda
Grenada
Panama
Aruba
Guyana
St. Kitts and Nevis
Bahamas Haiti
St.
Lucia
Barbados
Jamaica
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Belize Montserrat
Trinidad
and
Tobago
Dominica
Netherlands Antilles
British Virgin Islands
B. Beneficiary Countries Designated under the CBTPA:42
Barbados Haiti
St.
Lucia
Belize Jamaica
Trinidad
and
Tobago
Guyana Panama
C. Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Countries:43
Antigua and Barbuda
Grenada
St. Kitts and Nevis
Bahamas Guyana St.
Lucia
Barbados
Haiti
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Belize Jamaica
Suriname
Dominica Montserrat
Trinidad
and
Tobago
41 As listed in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (2010). The CAFTA-DR implementing Act (P.L.
109-53) modifies the CBERA legislation by adding the designation “former beneficiary country,” meaning a country
that ceases to be designated as a beneficiary country under CBERA because it has become a party to the CAFTA-DR.
These countries include Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, and Costa Rica,
which have implemented the CAFTA-DR, essentially trading their benefits under CBERA for equal or better treatment
under the free trade agreement.
42 As listed in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (2010). P.L. 109-53, as with the CBERA, amends
CBTPA status by including a new category of “former beneficiary country,” which includes the six CAFTA-DR
countries. In cases where a good is produced in both a former and current CBTPA country, it shall not receive any less
treatment than as if it had been produced by a CBTPA country.
43 For an overview of CARICOM, see CRS Report RL34308, CARICOM: Challenges and Opportunities for Caribbean
Economic Integration, by J. F. Hornbeck.
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Author Contact Information
J. F. Hornbeck
Specialist in International Trade and Finance
jhornbeck@crs.loc.gov, 7-7782
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