UNITED STATES (US) tariff policy now has the trade world in a tizzy, but the Small Business Association (SBA) has not been caught napping.
SBA chief executive officer (CEO) Dr. Lynette Holder says her organisation is in negotiations with two multilateral institutions in an effort to increase the ability of some of the country’s smallest enterprises to export, especially to markets beyond the US.
Holder says the SBA is also focused on ensuring that non-exporting companies within its ranks are able to maintain, or at best expand, their share of the domestic market.
“I am not going to say who they are right now, but they are one or two of the multilaterals that we are negotiating with right now to see if we can access some funding to help build capacity for the export drive that is needed,” she shared.
“These are things that we have been doing behind the scenes, especially within the last few weeks and months, where we have realised that the global order has changed. We have been looking at that to help with any repositioning that needs to happen.”
“The truth is of our membership maybe about 20 per cent or so would have the capacity for exports, but even so you have still got to build capacity in the domestic market too, so that those who may not export can still maintain the domestic share that they have,” she noted.
Appetite for foreign goods
“And not only that, but consumers now hopefully will see that they need to maybe change their appetite for these foreign goods as much as possible. So this is a new world order that is emerging and we have to re-adjust to suit, in my view.”
With US President Donald Trump announcing increased tariffs, including a ten per cent one applicable on Barbados’ exports to his country, Holder said she was not “seeing any red flags or hearing of any panic being raised and so on” from SBA members.
She explained that this was because “since Trump’s inauguration in January and the various announcements since then, we have actually been having member sessions
to help with the sensitisation”.
The SBA CEO restated her case for Barbados to look beyond the US for other markets to exports its goods and services to.
She used the example of the island’s trade with neighbouring countries that are members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
Trump’s approach to trade
“For a while, Barbados had a trade surplus with the OECS sub-region. It was the only region that we actually had a trade surplus with and I think it is unfortunate that we are not doing more in growing our reach in that particular market and increasing our exports to that market,” she suggested.
“But here is an opportunity for us to consider additional markets for our goods and our services as well.
“President Trump as a leader of the largest economy in the world he made a case that for too long that country has had a trade deficit with several countries. That is his approach and his administration’s approach to trade, increased tariffs to try to level, as he calls it, the issue of trade. My view is we have to look at other markets, that is a simple, simple solution for us,” Holder stated.
She observed that “sometimes it would appear that we need to have some exogenous shock, or some exogenous situation, that causes us to get off of our level of comfort and innovate and to change and if this [tariff change] is going to be the catalyst for us, well, it will have to be so”. “For a while this association had been organising all kind of education efforts, even trade missions and all that, trying to say to the private sector and small and medium enterprises in particular, that you cannot just rely on the traditional trading partners that we have had since the Second World War,” she recalled. “We are in a new era and it is time that we recognise that and adapt and adjust to suit. We can’t wait.” (SC)
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