CARICOM Trade Data Analysis: $90B Combined GDP, CSME Intelligence & Regional Trade Research

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) unites 15 member states with a combined GDP of US$90 billion and a population of 18.5 million, creating a regional economic bloc with significant trade and investment potential (IMF, 2024). Yet intra-CARICOM trade of just US$7.2 billion — only 12% of total member state trade — reveals that the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) remains far from its full potential (CARICOM Secretariat, 2024). This analysis examines CARICOM trade data, identifies market opportunities within the CSME framework, and explains how research-driven intelligence enables smarter regional trade strategies — building on our Caribbean export market research and logistics market analysis.

Understanding CARICOM Trade Data

CARICOM trade data encompasses the bilateral trade flows between 15 member states: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. The bloc's combined GDP of US$90 billion makes it comparable in economic size to mid-tier Latin American economies, though its geographic fragmentation across thousands of miles of ocean creates unique trade logistics challenges (IMF, 2024).

Trinidad and Tobago is the dominant intra-regional trader, accounting for approximately 45% of all intra-CARICOM exports. Its petrochemical, food manufacturing, and light industrial sectors serve regional markets with petroleum products, processed foods, chemicals, and building materials. Jamaica is the second-largest intra-regional trader, exporting beverages, agricultural products, and manufactured goods while importing significant volumes of energy products from Trinidad (CARICOM Secretariat, 2024).

Intra-Regional Trade Analysis

The US$7.2 billion in intra-CARICOM trade represents a persistent underperformance relative to the bloc's economic potential. By comparison, intra-regional trade within ASEAN countries accounts for approximately 23% of total trade, and EU internal trade exceeds 60% (CARICOM Secretariat, 2024; WTO, 2024). Several structural factors explain the Caribbean's low intra-regional trade intensity: small market sizes that limit economies of scale, similar production structures across islands that reduce complementary trade opportunities, high transportation costs between geographically dispersed islands, and persistent non-tariff barriers including varying product standards and import procedures.

Non-tariff barriers (NTBs) remain the most significant impediment to intra-CARICOM trade growth. These include divergent sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards that effectively block agricultural trade between member states, import licensing requirements that create bureaucratic delays, foreign exchange restrictions in countries like Suriname and Guyana, and uneven enforcement of the Common External Tariff that creates competitive distortions. The CARICOM Secretariat has catalogued over 80 active NTBs affecting regional trade, though compliance mechanisms remain weak (CARICOM Secretariat, 2024; ECLAC, 2024).

Source: IMF World Economic Outlook, 2024; CARICOM Secretariat, 2024. GDP figures are estimates.

CSME Market Opportunities

The Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) creates distinct advantages for businesses positioned to leverage the framework's provisions. The free movement of goods eliminates tariffs on CARICOM-originating products, allowing manufacturers and food processors in one member state to access the entire 18.5 million-person regional market without customs duties. This is particularly valuable for FMCG manufacturers and food companies seeking to scale beyond small domestic markets (CARICOM Secretariat, 2024).

The CSME's services trade provisions allow service providers including professionals, artisans, and specialized consultants to operate across member states with simplified work permit processes. Skills certification reciprocity means that qualifications earned in one CARICOM country are recognized in others, facilitating labour mobility in sectors facing skills shortages. Agricultural trade protocols within the CSME include special provisions for small farming states and mechanisms for managing seasonal supply surpluses, though implementation of these provisions varies significantly across member states (CARICOM Secretariat, 2024).

Data Sources for CARICOM Research

Effective CARICOM trade research requires triangulating data from multiple sources due to the fragmented nature of Caribbean statistical systems. Primary data sources include the CARICOM Secretariat's trade database, which compiles member state customs data with varying timeliness and coverage. The UN Comtrade database provides standardized bilateral trade data at the HS code level, enabling detailed product-level analysis of trade flows between CARICOM members and extra-regional partners.

The ITC Trade Map platform offers export potential indicators and market access information that helps identify underexploited trade corridors within CARICOM. National statistical offices in larger member states (Jamaica's STATIN, Trinidad's CSO, Guyana's Bureau of Statistics) provide more granular trade data including port-level import statistics and quarterly trade reports. Our research methodology supplements these secondary data sources with primary intelligence gathered through customs broker interviews, distributor surveys, trade association consultations, and regulatory authority engagements that provide context unavailable in published statistics.

How We Analyze Trade Flows

Our CARICOM trade flow analysis methodology begins with a macro-level assessment of bilateral trade patterns using HS-code level customs data to identify the largest and fastest-growing product categories in intra-regional trade. We then overlay regulatory data including applicable tariff rates, rules of origin requirements, SPS standards, and import licensing obligations to create a comprehensive trade environment profile for each member state and product category.

Competitive positioning analysis maps existing suppliers in target markets, their market shares, pricing structures, and distribution arrangements. This intelligence helps clients identify market gaps, assess competitive intensity, and develop differentiated positioning strategies. Our in-market research teams across Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, and Guyana conduct distributor landscape assessments, retail distribution audits, and stakeholder interviews that provide qualitative depth to the quantitative trade data analysis.

Agricultural trade protocols within CARICOM deserve special attention due to their complexity and economic significance for smaller member states. The CSME includes provisions for the free movement of agricultural goods originating within member states, but implementation is complicated by varying SPS standards, seasonal import restrictions designed to protect domestic producers, and emergency safeguard measures that individual states can invoke. Our research maps these agricultural trade protocols on a product-by-product and market-by-market basis, identifying which commodities move freely and which face practical barriers despite formal tariff elimination (CARICOM Secretariat, 2024).

Services trade within CARICOM represents a growing area of opportunity that is poorly captured by traditional trade statistics. The CSME's provisions for free movement of services and skilled persons theoretically enable seamless cross-border service delivery, but implementation varies by member state and service category. Professional services including accounting, architecture, engineering, and legal services are covered under the CSME's skills certification reciprocity framework, though mutual recognition of qualifications remains inconsistent. Our services trade analysis quantifies the market opportunity for service exporters and maps the practical requirements for cross-border service delivery in each CARICOM market (CARICOM Secretariat, 2024).

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