CARICOM Chairman and Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, has warned that the Caribbean region is facing an economic catastrophe in light of recent tariffs imposed by United States President, Donald Trump on countries in the region and around the world.

In an address to the region, Prime Minister Mottley warned further that the international system is now in danger of collapse in the face of a global trade war.

She said a trade war between large exporting countries can spell trouble for the region.

“Our Caribbean economies are not very large. So, we are, and have always been, at the whims of global prices. If Europe and China and the U.S. and Canada and Mexico are all putting tariffs on each other, that is going to disrupt supply chains, that is going to raise the cost of producing everything, from the food you eat, to the clothes on your back, to the phone in your pocket, to the car you drive down the road, to the spare parts that you need for critical infrastructure. That means higher prices for all of us to pay, and sadly, yes, this will impact all of us, regardless of what any of our Caribbean governments will do,”she said in a recorded address.

According to the CARICOM Chair, even if countries in the region are to lower tariffs and trade among themselves, it would not make any difference.

She noted that regional economies are small and vulnerable, and many sectors, which would include the tourism sector will face the brunt of the effect of the fall out. Mottley said the regional private sector must now come together and work together with Government for the immediate preservation of the tourism sector.

“There’s trouble in our Caribbean waters, but the responsibility each and every day for much of what we do and what much of what we grow must be ours, if we take care of each other, if we support each other, if we uplift each other, and if we tap into the strength and innovation of our common Caribbean spirit, we will see this through,” Mottley pleaded.

She urged Caribbean leaders to unify now more than ever, warning that this is not the time to score political points.

“First, we must re-engage urgently, directly, and at the highest possible level with our friends in the United States of America. There is an obvious truth which has to be confronted by both sides. That truth is that these small and microstates of the Caribbean do not, in any way or in any sector, enjoy a greater degree of financial benefit in the balance of trade than does the United States. In fact, it is because of our small size, our great vulnerability, our limited manufacturing capacity, our inability to distort trade in any way, that successive United States administrations, included, and most recently, the Reagan administration in the early 1980s went to great lengths to assist us in promoting our abilities to sell in the United States under the Caribbean Basin Initiative,” She recalled.

Ms. Mottley said the region must now re-double its efforts to produce its own food, and must also build its ties with Africa, Central and Latin America, and renew those ties with some  older partners around the world, in the United Kingdom and Europe, and in Canada to avoid relying heavily on one market.

The tariffs announced this past week by the US President has created jitters across the region and the rest of the world. Several CARICOM states are facing an increase in tariffs for their products that are imported into the US. Guyana has been slapped with the highest tariff rate in the region of 38%.

Local and regional manufacturers fear that the increase in tariffs could result in a decrease in the demand for their products and they could lose key markets in the US.

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