JAMAICA | As US Tariffs bite, Our Agriculture Withers Says Fulton

KINGSTON, Jamaica, April 6, 2025 - The recent United States imposed 10% tariff on Jamaica is no bolt from the blue—it arrived with all the subtlety of an oncoming freight train: first the whistle, then the rumbling engine, and finally the full force of President Trump 2.0's economic agenda.

For decades, Jamaicans and our governments alike have wrapped themselves in the comfortable fiction of friendship with the USA, England, and Commonwealth nations, despite repeated rude awakenings from these countries' immigration departments, agencies, and trade regimes.

Let's be brutally honest: Jamaica's best and only true friend is a stable and strong economy—one capable of defending our exchange rate, spurring growth, creating an environment where private sector and agriculture can flourish, and funding local needs through properly approved annual budgets.

The chorus of concern has grown deafening. Organizations from the Private Sector Association of Jamaica to the Jamaica Agricultural Society, trade unions, and small enterprises have pleaded for clear policy positions on agricultural land use, trade incentives, and tax benefits for productive sectors. 

These calls have echoed from the lips of every organizational head for years, met with nothing but government silence.

Yet these contentious tariffs should be viewed through a lens of opportunity rather than despair. They create new channels for discussion among Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad, and countries facing even steeper tariffs than our ten percent. 

Meanwhile, acquisitions and mergers present themselves as navigational pathways for businesses seeking new market frontiers—essential survival strategies for a small open economy like Jamaica. 

But these possibilities demand swift government intervention through coherent policy and diplomatic engagement, orchestrated in concert with business and agricultural stakeholders.

While America remains the world's wealthiest market, support for Jamaican products continues its downward spiral, driven by socioeconomic factors that have simultaneously dampened remittance prospects. 

The harsh reality is that most of our diaspora in North America and Europe earn lower-than-average wages, severely restricting their purchasing power and, by extension, their ability to support Jamaican exports.

The recently concluded budget debates were an exercise in governmental misdirection—long-winded and needlessly vague, fixating on historical relics while ignoring looming headwinds like the U.S. trade debacle and the twin pressures of pull and push inflation. 

One wonders if the Bank of Jamaica's 4-6 percent annual inflation target has become meaningless, or whether the Statistical Institute of Jamaica will need to completely reconfigure its basket of goods for the consumer price index to reflect our harsh economic reality.

Meanwhile, agricultural production continues its free fall with no bottom in sight. Persistent unfavorable weather conditions combine with the inexplicable repurposing of prime agricultural lands, all compounded by government land agencies' bureaucratic sloth in leasing idle lands for farming. 

This production quagmire is only worsened by the Agro Investment Corporation's operated Agro Parks, which continue to lag woefully behind implementation schedules. The result? Local foods, vegetables, and fruits remain prohibitively expensive due to scarcity, rendering them utterly uncompetitive in foreign markets.

Government agencies—including AIC, Agro Parks, Sugar Company of Jamaica Holdings, and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority—must finally fulfill their mandates to improve both production and productivity.

The new reality in world trade has thrown the World Trade Organization and other trade agreements into disarray, even as our government announces the removal of fifteen percent GCT on imported foodstuffs during this period of uncertainty.

Financing these new trade developments remains a pressing concern. Government must take the lead through grants covering expenses for trade missions, providing seed capital for producer loans, and utilizing state agencies like JAMPRO and the Development Bank of Jamaica to underwrite advertising costs, market studies, and promotions for new markets.

Make no mistake: an economic earthquake of incalculable magnitude has reshuffled the trade deck of cards. Jamaica and the Caribbean must know precisely when to hold and when to fold. If we play our hand poorly, our economy risks burial under inflationary debris, cutting off the oxygen supply to thousands of already food-insecure citizens.

The alarm isn't just ringing—it's blaring. The question remains: is anyone in power actually listening?

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