About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

18 J. World Trade L. 429 (1984)
Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act

handle is hein.kluwer/jwt0018 and id is 445 raw text is: Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act Export Expansion Effects W. CHARLES SAWYER and RICHARD L. SPRINKLE DURING THE PAST THREE YEARS a key part of the current U.S. Admini- stration's policy toward Latin America has been an increased level of concern about the Caribbean Basin region.' Essentially this region forms the third border of the United States and is of obvious strategic impor- tance. The concept of the Caribbean Basin is in reality a geographic one because the region is far from homogeneous in any other sense. Total combined population in the Caribbean Basin is approximately 40 million and the combined GDP is $45 billion. In 1980 U.S. exports to the region were $6.8 billion, U.S. imports from the region were $10.4 billion, and U.S. direct investment in the region is $22.5 billion.2 Further the region is a vital sea lane through which 75 per cent of U.S. oil imports must flow. Unfortunately, the Caribbean Basin has continued to face serious economic difficulties in the past several years. The rising price of oil has adversely affected the region in spite of the preferential prices offered to these countries by Mexico and Venezuela. This rise in the price of oil was followed by a recession in the developed countries which has depressed both the price and volume of exports from the region. These un- favorable trends have often been accompanied by domestic monetary, fiscal, and exchange rate policies which were inappropriate. The results of this combination have been high inflation, rising unemployment, and declining growth rates of GDP. Along with these internal imbalances, the external balance of the countries of the region has deteriorated and in some cases there is a pressing liquidity crisis. Under the best of circum- 'The countries (or provinces) included in the region are Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Surinam, Trinidad and Tobago, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, St. Christopher-Nevis, Turks and Caicos, and the British Virgin Islands. All of these countries, with the exception of Cuba and Nicaragua, should be able to meet the criteria for designation as beneficiary countries as outlined in Section 102 of the CBERA. 1980 figures are used throughout because this is the last non-recession year for which data were available. W. Charles Sawyer, Ph.D., is at present an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Southern Mississippi and Richard L. Sprinkle, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Finance at the University of Texas at E. Paso. 429 Copyright © 2007 by Kluwer Law International. All rights reserved. No claim asserted to original government works.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most