Trade Matters : New Opportunities for the Caribbean
Trade is essential for Caribbean countries development and poverty reduction. Given their small market size, they are dependent on exports to produce manufactured products at efficient scale. And given their natural amenities, they rely on tourism...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2015
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/06/24654725/caribbean-trade-report-new-trade-environment-opportunities-poor-caribbean-vol-2-trade-matters-new-opportunities-caribbean http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22091 |
| Summary: | Trade is essential for Caribbean
countries development and poverty reduction. Given their
small market size, they are dependent on exports to produce
manufactured products at efficient scale. And given their
natural amenities, they rely on tourism as a major spur to
economic activity. Trade in the Caribbean thus makes an
essential contribution to increasing employment and reducing
poverty by supporting growth. At the same time, the high
dependence on trade also makes Caribbean economies
vulnerable to external shocks. For example, the global
financial crisis imposed substantial job losses in sectors
such as tourism that the poor rely on for employment. This
report employs several different, but complementary,
empirical approaches to analyzing the impact of this
emerging new trade environment on shared prosperity in the
Caribbean. These include the following six topics, with each
corresponding to an individual chapter: (i) assessment of
the Caribbean s performance in reaping the opportunities
offered by the new trade environment; (ii) identification of
the main determinants of Caribbean countries trade
performance; (iii) discussion of the role of innovation and
access to keys services in improving the productivity of
exporting firms; (iv) exploration of how regional
integration and other trade agreements could boost Caribbean
trade performance; (v) firm-level examination of the
implications of trade for employment; and (vi)
identification of which households are involved in
international trade and the implications of trade for their
socio-economic status. |
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