The Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), a trade initiative initiated by the 1983
Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA), is a United States program. The CBI came into effect on January 1, 1984, and aimed to provide several tariff and trade benefits to many
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
n and
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...
countries. Provisions in the CBERA prevented the United States from extending preferences to CBI countries that it judged to be contrary to its interests or that had expropriated American property.
The Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Expansion Act of 1990, known as "CBI II", made the CBI permanent. However, once the United States entered into the
North American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA ; es, Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, TLCAN; french: Accord de libre-échange nord-américain, ALÉNA) was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that crea ...
(NAFTA) in 1994 with Mexico it became easier for Mexico to export its products to the United States. CBI countries had lost their advantage relative to Mexico, a major competitor in industries such as textiles and apparel, so they sought to increase their own preferences and achieve "NAFTA parity". Those efforts were not successful until the 2000
Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act
The Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) is a United States legislative act signed into law on May 18, 2000 by President Bill Clinton as part of the Trade and Development Act of 2000. This latter act, which also included the Africa Grow ...
, which was broadened in 2002. Several exports from the region continue to receive preferential status in the United States, however those preferences will likely be replaced by
bilateral
Bilateral may refer to any concept including two sides, in particular:
*Bilateria, bilateral animals
*Bilateralism, the political and cultural relations between two states
*Bilateral, occurring on both sides of an organism ( Anatomical terms of l ...
free trade agreement
A free-trade agreement (FTA) or treaty is an agreement according to international law to form a free-trade area between the cooperating states. There are two types of trade agreements: bilateral and multilateral. Bilateral trade agreements occ ...
s, and possibly by the proposed
Free Trade Area of the Americas
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was a proposed agreement to eliminate or reduce the trade barriers among all countries in the Americas, excluding Cuba. Negotiations to establish the FTAA ended in failure, however, with all parties unab ...
.
Impact on farmers in Haiti
In the early 1980's, Haiti was self-sufficient in the field of rice production. However, the CBI called for liberalizing Haiti's economy and re-allocating nearly one-third of domestic Haitian food production toward export crops, and as a result of the subsequent shrinking of the rice industry and inundation of the market with cheap imported rice subsidized by the US government, Haitian farmers found their liveliehoods crippled as they could not compete with the subsidized "Miami rice". Subsequently, rice production in Haiti plummeted, and many rural Haitians employed throughout the rice industry lost their source of income. However,
American rice
Rice production is the third largest among cereals in the United States, after corn and wheat. Of the country's row crop farms, rice farms are the most capital-intensive, and have the highest national land rental rate average. In the US, all ric ...
producers that took in government subsidies and dumped their product on Haiti, where tariffs on rice imports shrank from 35% to 3%, benefited greatly financially.
See also
*
Caribbean Basin Trade and Partnership Act
The Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) is a law adopted by the U.S. Government in October 2000 to delineate enhanced trade preferences and eligibility requirements for the 24 beneficiary countries of the Caribbean Basin region.
On Octo ...
*
Latin American debt crisis
The Latin American debt crisis ( es, Crisis de la deuda latinoamericana; pt, Crise da dívida latino-americana) was a financial crisis that originated in the early 1980s (and for some countries starting in the 1970s), often known as ''La Déca ...
*
Latin American economy
*
Rice production in Haiti
References
External links
*
* {{cite web , url=https://archive.org/details/4732328.1983.002.umich.edu/page/1418 , title=Remarks at a White House Ceremony Marking the Implementation of the Caribbean Basin Initiative - October 5, 1983 , last=Reagan , first=Ronald W. , date=October 5, 1983 , website=Internet Archive , location=Washington, D.C. , publisher=National Archives and Records Service , pages=1418–1420
United States foreign relations legislation
United States–Caribbean relations
Economy of the Caribbean
Economy of Central America
1984 in international relations
1984 in law