Regional leaders, Private Sector agree on measures to improve affordability across the region

Jul 11, 2026 News

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(Kaieteur News) – Against the backdrop of rising cost-of-living pressures across the Caribbean Community, (CARICOM), the OECS Business Council (OBC), the CARICOM Private Sector Organisation (CPSO) and CARICOM Heads of Government held a high level breakfast meeting where they examined and agreed on practical measures to improve affordability across the region.

The OBC led discussions on removing barriers to intra-regional trade, reducing transportation and logistics costs, diversifying imports, mobilising regional investment capital. The group also spoke of strengthening tourism linkages, and addressing the Disproportionate Negative Impacts (DNI) of the International Maritime Organisation’s Net-Zero Framework (NZF) on CARICOM Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

The OECS Business Council convened at Sandals Grande, Saint Lucia, under the theme “Meeting the Affordability Challenge: Toward a Proactive Agenda for member states and the Private Sector” on July 6th 2026, in the margins of the 51st Regular Meeting of the Conference of Head of Government of the Caribbean Community.

According to a release from CARICOM, the discussions echoed a consensus by regional governments, that the private sector and organised labour must move beyond policy dialogue to coordinated implementation, supported by clearly defined mandates, timelines and measurable outcomes.

During her presentation, Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley made an explicit call for a formal tripartite compact among governments, the private sector and organised labour, covering a basket of essential products. She called on the private sector to accept lower profits on essential goods to ease the cost of living for CARICOM citizens.

“Food, sanitary items and basic household goods cannot keep moving beyond the reach of ordinary families while others take every dollar they can get. There is room for profit, but there must also be room for conscience,” she said.

Mottley stressed that the proposed compact would not apply across every product category but would focus on the items families rely on every day.

“There is no basis, and forgive me, but Massy cannot make BDS$49 million in profit in Barbados, and middle-class people can’t afford to buy food,” she said.

“They could have made BDS$20 million in profit in these circumstances, and they would have been just as good, just as happy, and BDS$29 million would have been left in the pockets of the people who have to decide whether to eat today or not to eat.”

Further, she pointed to the need discussions with the contribution of ideas from all quarters were recognised.

The meeting also addressed the costs to capital, endorsing the urgency of creating a bridge between the surplus liquidity held by regional financial institutions and strategic investment opportunities in areas such as desalination, battery storage, solar, wind and geothermal power generation, and port facilities.

During the session, the regional private sector reaffirmed its commitment to climate action, decarbonisation and the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as essential to the sustainable development of CARICOM Member States.

At the same time, the faction expressed broad support for a cautious regional approach to implementation of the IMO Net-Zero Framework (which aims to impose penalties on shipping failing to convert fleets to net-zero carbon-emitting fuels), citing its disproportionate negative impacts on Small Island Developing States, consumers and the tourism industry, particularly the cruise sector.

Investment opportunities in agriculture were singled out for listing on the platform, and a request was made for a compendium of CARICOM-wide agricultural investments to be presented at the next high-level breakfast forum.

In the same spirit of building regional value chains, the discussion focused on the need for renewed support for completing the Tourism Linkages Project.

Participants of the forum also endorsed extending the CPSO’s import-diversification work to quantify the import savings and wider economic benefits associated with the transition to renewable energy, with an update to be presented to the next Meeting of the Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP).

To carry the agenda forward, participants agreed to establish working groups operating with predefined timelines and measurable deliverables, ensuring that the commitments arising from the session are implemented and monitored for accountability.

Also dominating the discussions was the urgent need to resolve the region’s inadequate transport capacity, which continues to constrain the CSME commitment to the free movement of people and goods.

Participants agreed on a September 2026 deadline for creation of the enabling regulatory framework for the mutual recognition of insurance, licences and road taxes, essential to finalising arrangements for the regional ferry service to be operated by the private sector.

In the interim, heads determined that an earlier pilot ferry initiative will be pursued, utilising a vessel the Government of Trinidad and Tobago has expressed its willingness to deploy to launch the service.

The session also registered satisfaction at the commencement of service by Executive Air Cargo, which has begun transporting agri-food products among member states. Non-Tariff Barriers: Turning to the barriers within the region’s own control, they adopted a ‘pairwise’ model of direct engagement between the member states implementing the fifty-seven (57) non-tariff barriers (NTBs) identified by the private sector as suppressing intra-regional trade, and the member states affected by them.

The model will be implemented under the leadership of a lead head of government, with the active participation of the private sector and the relevant ministerial and regulatory institutions, and with implementing and affected states committing to time-bound remedial actions.

Participants also benefitted from a presentation of technical work on reducing the cost and increasing the benefits, of diversifying and de-risking CARICOM’s imports. It noted that the region stands to realise expected savings of circa USD $2.0 billion from the diversification of a component of its non-fuel imports alone and recognised the scope for still greater savings from reduced fuel imports as the region transitions to renewables.

The CPSO was urged to undertake further work on the fuel import-energy transition nexus, as a matter of immediate priority.

At the interim, “the CPSO will work closely with the CSME Prime Ministerial Sub Committee to follow up on this structure,” the release added

The session concluded with a shared determination that the Caribbean’s affordability challenge must be addressed through practical, time-bound and results-oriented action, and that the enduring partnership among governments, the private sector and organised labour will remain central to delivering meaningful benefits for the people of the community.

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• affordability, CARICOM, OECS Business Council, Private Sector

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