Elizabeth Morgan | Growing Jamaica’s exports: Can we now get it right?

The Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Senator Aubyn Hill, has been highlighting the need for Jamaica to increase exports to reduce its trade deficit and promote growth and development. This has become a perennial post-independence challenge.

The export of goods and services is indeed a critical means of implementing Jamaica’s national development plan – Vision 2030 Jamaica, linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

In trade, the issue, which has dogged Jamaica, a small state, for many years, has been how to expand and sustainably grow exports of goods and services to spur positive and sustained economic growth of three per cent or more per annum, earn foreign exchange, and create jobs, paying livable wages, in an environmentally sustainable manner. Jamaica’s high crime rate is an inhibitor to production and export, as is the high cost of energy. Discipline, personal and societal, is also required.

In the last 20 years, efforts have been made, with minimal success, to increase goods and services exports.

The challenges to the economy, now posed by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, make it even more urgent to find a solution to the country’s export crisis, which is well documented, including in my articles.

PREVIOUS EFFORTS TO IMPROVE EXPORTS

It has been long recognised that Jamaica needs to improve its level of exports for growth by fully utilising the preferential market access available under existing trade arrangements with CARICOM, other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the USA, Canada, the EU and the UK.

Among others, there have been:

• Two National Export Strategies for 2010-2013 and 2015-2019. Evidently, neither met their objectives;

• A National Foreign Trade Policy adopted in 2018 aimed at positioning Jamaica to increase exports, calling for exporting to be a national priority, and for a “whole of government” coordinated approach, collaborating with the private sector. My impression is that this policy is not being implemented.

• Promoting Jamaica as a logistics hub (envisioned since at least 1903);

• The Trade Facilitation Task Force related to the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation to enable the more efficient flow of goods across borders.

• An Economic Diplomacy Programme launched in 2020 with a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and Jamaica Promotions Corporation Ltd (JAMPRO) for cooperation in trade and investment promotions. As I see it, this faced implementation challenges from the outset due to the lack of necessary human and financial resources;

• A special investment envoy appointed to four African countries in 2021;

• The struggle to implement the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) for intra-regional trade, including recent bilateral MOUs.

Since 2000, in the various government ministries, departments and agencies, in consultations with the private sector, numerous sectors, and trade and trade-related policies, plans and strategies have been formulated to improve production and exports. A national umbrella services policy, an investment policy, and an updated industrial policy are still works in progress, I understand.

So, on paper, there is no shortage of policies, plans and strategies for creating the enabling environment for production and export; ideas have been posited from many sources; MOUs signed; and committees and task forces established.

Something is definitely missing as increased production and exports are not being realised. The limited results declare that stakeholders are not doing something right.

The question to tackle is – how do the stakeholders find the right formula for success in the current difficult and changing global economic environment? Exports have to be a national priority in a partnership between the public and private sectors as well as civil society. The Jamaican producers and traders not only need to maintain and further grow non-traditional goods exports, but also fill the gap left by the fallout in the traditional exports, in practical and manageable steps. Emphasis should be on achieving competitiveness. There is need to focus on agriculture, industry, and services development, and the linkages between the three.

Jamaica has to bring to the market more and new products with added value. These should be tailored to meet market demand. Increasing sales would benefit from strategies to influence consumer taste and, where necessary, adapting products to tastes. Renewed efforts in market intelligence and strategy for exports is required. This should be supported by innovation and thus serious investment in research and development, advancing work done by agencies such as the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), the Scientific Research Council, and other innovators in the public and private sectors and academia.

Full advantage should be taken of the Intellectual Property Rights regime which should be further strengthened where necessary. These efforts to revitalise Jamaica’s goods exports must advance together with determined efforts to expand trade in other services. Where possible, service providers should be assisted in securing the necessary certification/accreditation to compete. E-commerce presents tremendous opportunities to expand trade in goods and services often with much reduced overheads and exposure as compared to traditional physical means. This is an area in which work needs to be done to ensure that our producers and service providers are able to maximise opportunities to exploit this new frontier of trade. While addressing these core challenges, Jamaica’s stakeholders should ensure that their trade strategy and agenda take account of climate change, greening the economy, and renewable energy.

The educational system and training has to be propelled towards achieving better results if Jamaica is to have a knowledge-based economy.

The private sector, with regional counterparts, has to better equip itself to address the issues, securing needed human and financial resources, where available, to conduct product analysis, market research, and build awareness of international trade rules and regulations. Building partnerships for production should be explored.

Further strategic measures must also be taken to exploit the opportunities provided by tourism as an on-shore export market for agriculture and the creative/cultural industries.

Improving exports is not short term and, for consistency, must also have a bipartisan approach. Implementation has to be undertaken with seriousness and long-term commitment. We cannot talk increasing exports into being.

Elizabeth Morgan is a specialist in international trade policy and international politics. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com