With the right action and network, the Caribbean could increase its measly exports to Africa by as much as US$80 million annually, says Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (ITC) Pamela Coke-Hamilton.She made the disclosure on Thursday during the opening of the inaugural AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, as she launched the ITC’s Expanding African-Caribbean Trade report, which examines the export potential for trade between Africa and the Caribbean.“The figures we estimated across goods and services are pretty startling. With the right actions and networks, Africa and Caribbean trade could reach up to US$1 billion [over the next five years]. Africa could boost annual exports to the Caribbean by US$171 million year-over-year by 2026 and this is more than 50 per cent increase over last year’s export levels,” Coke-Hamilton reported.“The Caribbean could also expand exports to Africa by US$80 million year-over-year, equivalent to increasing our exports by almost a third,” she said.The trade expert noted that research has shown that the goods trade between Africa and the Caribbean is currently “negligible” and heavily concentrated in a handful of goods and countries.
