The following trade agreements have been signed by Antigua and Barbuda. The following trade agreements provide investors with access to regional and worldwide markets as part of the Free Trade and Processing Zone:
Association of Caribbean States (ACS)
The Association of Caribbean States (ACS), which was founded on August 18, 1995, includes Antigua and Barbuda. The ACS countries have a population of almost 200 million people and are made up of 38 countries from the Caribbean, South, and Central America. The CARICOM countries, as well as Venezuela, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and some Central American countries, are all members. Aruba, the Kingdom of the Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, the French territories, and the British and US Virgin Islands are all eligible associate members. This federation offers commerce, investment, tourism, transportation, and economic development prospects.
CARICOM
Antigua and Barbuda are a part of the group of countries in the Caribbean. Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago are all members of CARICOM. One of CARICOM’s key goals is to increase intra-Caribbean trade by reducing tariffs and barriers.
The primary goal of this agreement is to improve economic and trade relations between CARICOM and Venezuela (hereafter referred to as “the Parties”) by implementing the following measures:
- Promoting and expanding the sale of commodities produced in CARICOM, including one-way duty-free access to the Venezuelan market;
- Stimulation of investments aimed at maximizing the Parties’ market opportunities and improving their global competitiveness;
- Facilitating the formation and management of regional joint ventures; and
- Encouraging the development of tools to promote and protect investments made by nationals of the Parties.
As a result, Venezuela has undertaken to provide products originating in CARICOM member states unfettered access to its markets by implementing tariff reduction and non-tariff barrier elimination programs following precise timelines laid forth in the agreement. However, certain items, such as beef, certain milk products, coffee & cocoa beans, vegetable oils & fats, orange juices, oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, anhydrous ammonia, aluminum sulfate, other carboxylic acids, medicaments constituted by a mixture of products prepared for therapeutic or prophylactic use, urea, paints, and varnishes based on modified synthetic or natural polymers, dissolved in an aqueous or no-aqueous.
Caribbean Basin Initiative
Antigua and Barbuda is a beneficiary of the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI). The CBI is a broad program aiming at encouraging economic growth in Central American and Caribbean countries through private sector initiatives. Its main purpose is to increase foreign and domestic investment in non-traditional sectors, diversify the economy, and increase CBI countries’ exports. The following are the primary components of the CBI program that are available to all CBI beneficiary countries:
- Duty-free entry into the United States for a broad variety of products cultivated and manufactured in CBI nations, to spur investment and export growth.
- Electronic and electro-mechanical assembly, handicraft, giftware, and decorative accessories, wood products, including furniture and building materials, recreational items, such as sporting goods and toys, fresh and frozen seafood, tropical fruit products, and winter vegetables, ethnic and specialty foods, such as sauces, spices, liqueurs, and jams, ornamental horticulture, and medical and surgical supplies.
- The vast majority of textiles and clothes, canned tuna, petroleum and petroleum products, footwear, except disposable goods and footwear components such as uppers, some leather, rubber, and plastic gloves, luggage, purses flat goods, certain leather apparel, watches and watch parts, except if any component originated in a communist country, are all exempt from duty-free entry under the CBI law.
- CBI Textile Program: A unique access program for textiles and apparel (Guaranteed Access Levels) that ensures markets for garments manufactured from US-formed and –cut material.
- CBI Government Procurement: Producers from CBI countries are given preferential consideration in bidding for certain types of US government contracts.
- Exemption from US Import Merchandise Processing Fees for CBI shipments to the US.
- A comprehensive range of business development programs backed in part by US foreign economic assistance, including trade and investment funding, business missions, and technical assistance.
