Editorial | New strategies for new era

A comforting story of multilateralism and liberal democracy that has guided Caribbean thinking for the last 70-80 years is fast disappearing. The region has to face a new era without an open world economy that is generally rules-based and broadly predictable. Small states can no longer expect to succeed through good behaviour and diplomatic charm.

Geopolitics has returned with force. Global trade is being reorganised into rival blocs and “trusted partner” networks. Security is being fused with commerce, and tariffs, sanctions, industrial subsidies, and friend-shoring, which are now standard instruments of statecraft.

For small, dependent economies like Jamaica and its CARICOM neighbours, trade is no longer only economics. It is part of the national security strategy.

That is why, as this newspaper has argued, there is increased urgency in Jamaica and CARICOM pushing hard to expand their global partnerships.

FACING HEADWINDS

Already, the region is facing the headwinds of international uncertainty and instability, a slowing world economy, tightening protectionism, fragile supply chains, and a worsening climate reality that disrupts production and shipping alike. At the same time, the intensifying geopolitical contest among major powers threatens to squeeze small states into awkward choices.

Yet even in this squally environment there are opportunities. When large economies reorganise trade and supply chains, they also seek new suppliers, alternative routes, and reliable partners. Jamaica and CARICOM can benefit but only if they approach the rapidly evolving, though still shifting circumstances, with clear-eyed realism. Diplomatic friendship alone will not move goods and services across borders. Market access must now be purchased in a more demanding currency – standards and compliance.

In that regard, CARICOM has to face an uncomfortable truth: many Caribbean exporters do not fail because of the price of their goods or because they lack quality, creativity, or effort. They fail because they cannot meet the modern regulatory expectations of many markets, including the European Union (EU), Britain, and Canada.

In a word, a primary failing is compliance. Or the lack thereof.

This partly explains the failure of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), a free trade pact between the EU and Caribbean countries, to take off. And if they fail at the compliance level, they cannot scale and grow.

External markets now operate on strict food-safety rules, technical standards, labelling requirements, and sustainability regulations. Buyers want proof: certifications, traceability systems, test results, audit reports, conformity assessments, and, increasingly, carbon and environmental data. The modern export economy demands endless paperwork - no certificate, no entry.

NEW STRATEGY

This calls for a new strategy. The country that builds compliance capability will gain access that others cannot.

This, however, is a costly undertaking that requires the State to play a more significant role in building out the needed ecosystem.

In a fragmented world, resilience comes from diversification. CARICOM must expand partnerships while maintaining balanced diplomacy, deepening engagement with the EU, strengthening post-Brexit links with the UK, and widening trade and investment ties with Canada. At the same time, it must build practical corridors with Latin America, Central America, India, Asia, selected African markets, and the Gulf States.

But partnerships must go beyond communiqué. The region should pursue faster, sector-based arrangements – “mini-deals” and protocols focusing on standards recognition, Customs cooperation, shipping facilitation, and business mobility. Small states cannot wait decades for grand free trade deals while global markets harden.

The immediate goal for Jamaica, therefore, must be the building of an export-compliance ecosystem - not just a list of target products. Export success depends on institutions and systems as much as producers.

In food and agro-processing, which offers Jamaica quick wins, this means strengthening the national HACCP-based food-safety systems; accelerating farm registration, ensuring produce traceability, and expanding the network of accredited laboratories with capacity to test for pesticide residues, heavy metals, and microbiological safety.

Put another way, the country has to have a system of export inspection and certification that is trusted by foreign authorities and buyers.

In manufacturing, it means strengthening the pathways to meet technical standards, conformity assessments, and documentation requirements that match EU and UK rules.

EMERGING FRONTIER

Then there is the emerging frontier: sustainability regulation. EU requirements on deforestation-free supply chains and carbon reporting will become major gatekeepers for global trade. If Jamaica cannot supply traceability and emissions-related documentation, it will lose market access not because manufacturers are inefficient, but because they are non-compliant.

Pragmatically, the Government must put more resources into the Bureau of Standards and other regulatory agencies to ensure that they function as part of a modern, digitally supported trade competitiveness ecosystem. It must also put in place a compliance-financing facility that helps firms pay for audits, tests, packaging upgrades, and be compliant with certification.

A second truth is that CARICOM cannot trade outward successfully while being fragmented inward. Non-tariff barriers, duplication of standards, weak mutual recognition, and high intra-regional shipping costs undermine Caribbean production and export scale.

CARICOM must build a fast lane for “home” goods, harmonise standards, strengthen mutual recognition of inspections, and solve the shipping constraint that acts like a huge tariff on regional commerce.

In 2026, trade policy must be treated as a national survival issue. The region’s response to geopolitical turbulence must not merely be anxiety. It must be institution-building to take advantage of opportunities.

The strategic path is clear: diversify partnerships, deepen CARICOM integration, and build compliance and certification capacity to engage successfully with the EU, UK, Canada and beyond.