> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # CARICOM's Published Trade Totals Cover 13 of Its 15 Member States. One of the Two Left Out Is More Than Half the Community's People. - URL: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/caricom-trade-totals-thirteen-of-fifteen-bahamas-haiti-excluded-2026/ - Published: 2026-10-21T15:11:46.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-25T05:18:51.000Z - Description: CARICOM's Regional Statistics Programme publishes merchandise trade series running from 1973 to 2024. Its own note states the regional totals cover 13 of 15 member states, excluding The Bahamas and Haiti because they are outside the Common External Tariff. - Author: Theon Alleyne - Tags: Caribbean, Trade, Analysis **Quick summary:** CARICOM's Regional Statistics Programme publishes merchandise trade series running from 1973 to 2024\. Its own note states the regional totals cover 13 of 15 member states, excluding The Bahamas and Haiti because they are outside the Common External Tariff. Haiti is about 11.5 million of CARICOM's roughly 18 million people. By LCN Business Desk A regional total that is not the region. The exclusion is disclosed, in a note at the head of every table. It is also the reason two sets of Caribbean trade figures can both be accurate and still disagree. ## What do the tables say about their own coverage? That two member states are not in the regional totals, and why. CARICOM's **Regional Statistics Programme** publishes the series, compiled from member states' trade data and updated July 2026\. The note heading the balance of trade table reads: "This table presents the value of balance of trade for 13 of 15 Member States of CARICOM over the period 1973-2024\. The Bahamas and Haiti do not participate in the Common External Tariff (CET) arrangements for trade and are not part of the regional totals. Suriname joined CARICOM in 1995 and is therefore excluded from regional aggregates prior to 1995." The thirteen counted are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. ## How large is what is left out? Haiti alone is more than half the Community's population. Haiti is about **11.5 million** people against a CARICOM total of roughly **18 million**. It joined the Community in 2002\. The Bahamas adds about 400,000 more. So a figure described as CARICOM's merchandise trade is, on these tables, the trade of thirteen states representing a minority of the Community's population. The basis is stated plainly by the Programme. It is simply not the basis most readers assume when they see the word CARICOM. ## What does the series actually show? The balance swings between large deficits and surpluses rather than moving in one direction. | Year | Exports US$mn | Imports US$mn | Balance US$mn | | ---- | ------------- | ------------- | -------------- | | 2019 | 13,468.7 | 23,482.8 | **\-10,014.1** | | 2020 | 12,313.6 | 17,641.7 | \-5,328.1 | | 2021 | 17,548.6 | 22,494.5 | \-4,945.9 | | 2022 | 30,377.9 | 25,977.7 | **+4,400.2** | | 2023 | 26,291.0 | 31,583.3 | \-5,292.3 | | 2024 | 32,370.1 | 30,470.5 | **+1,899.6** | Source: CARICOM Regional Statistics Programme, Value of Balance of Trade by Country 1973-2024 and CARICOM Trade Summary 1973-2024, both updated July 2026. **2019 is the largest deficit in the whole series back to 1973**, at US$10.01 billion. **2022 is the largest surplus**, at US$4.40 billion. They are three years apart. The balance then returns to a US$5.29 billion deficit in 2023 and to a US$1.90 billion surplus in 2024. Exports more than doubled between 2021 and 2024, from US$17.5 billion to US$32.4 billion. CARICOM has not published a 2025 series. ## Why does a stated coverage matter this much? Because the same question answered on two bases gives two answers, and both are correct. A trade balance is exports minus imports. Removing a large net importer from the total raises the balance. The Bahamas and Haiti are both net importers of goods, so a thirteen-state total will sit above a fifteen-state one, and in a close year that difference decides whether the Community is reported as in surplus or in deficit. 2024 is such a year. On the published thirteen-state basis it is a surplus of US$1.9 billion, and the margin between surplus and deficit is small enough that coverage alone can move it. ## What is the intra-regional picture? Members buy more from each other than they sell to each other, every year in the recent series. | 2024, US$mn | | | ------------------------ | ------------- | | Intra-regional exports | 2,178.5 | | Intra-regional imports | 3,443.3 | | Net intra-regional trade | **\-1,264.7** | | Imports of food items | 5,120.9 | Source: as above. Food imports of US$5.12 billion in 2024 run against intra-regional exports of all goods of US$2.18 billion. The regional food import bill is more than twice everything the thirteen states sell to each other. ## What does this mean for the rest of the Caribbean? That the first question to ask of any Caribbean regional total is which countries are in it. Trade statistics are compiled through the Common External Tariff machinery, and the two members outside that machinery fall outside the totals built on it. The Programme says so. A reader who does not open the table will not know, and figures quoted from different bases will not reconcile however carefully each one was prepared. How that machinery works on individual products was examined in [Four Products, Three Assessment Teams](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/paints-cement-glass-bitumen-caricom-assessment-teams-guyana-2026/) and in [Sanitary Pads Enter the Caribbean at 20 Per Cent Duty](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/sanitary-pads-tampons-caricom-common-external-tariff-guyana-duty-2026/). The services side of the account, where the region runs a surplus, was set out in [CARICOM's Services Trade Runs a Surplus Above US$7.2 Billion](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/caricom-services-surplus-travel-82-per-cent-barnett-georgetown-2026/). Haiti's standing in the Community's trade arrangements was examined in [CARICOM Trade With Haiti: The Market Courted, The People Shut Out](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/haiti-caricom-trade-2026/). ### The entities - **CARICOM** is the Caribbean Community, with 15 full member states. - **Regional Statistics Programme** compiles and publishes the trade series from member states' data. - **Common External Tariff** is the CARICOM arrangement whose machinery the trade compilation rests on. - **The Bahamas** and **Haiti** are the two member states outside the regional totals. - **Value of Balance of Trade by Country 1973-2024** and **CARICOM Trade Summary 1973-2024** are the two published workbooks. ### What the title card shows Every data point on the article's title card, in text. - **13 of 15.** Member states covered by CARICOM's published regional trade totals. Source: CARICOM Regional Statistics Programme, updated July 2026. - **11.5 million.** Haiti's approximate population, against roughly 18 million for CARICOM as a whole. - **US$10.01 billion.** The 2019 deficit, the largest in the series back to 1973\. Source: as above. - **US$4.40 billion.** The 2022 surplus, the largest in the series. Source: as above. - **+US$1.90 billion.** The 2024 balance, a surplus. Source: as above. - **Quotation:** "The Bahamas and Haiti do not participate in the Common External Tariff (CET) arrangements for trade and are not part of the regional totals." CARICOM Regional Statistics Programme. ## Frequently Asked Questions How many CARICOM members are in its published trade totals? Thirteen of the fifteen full member states. The Bahamas and Haiti are excluded because they do not participate in the Common External Tariff arrangements. Which countries are counted? Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. How much of CARICOM's population is excluded? Haiti alone is about 11.5 million people against roughly 18 million for the Community, so more than half. The Bahamas adds about 400,000. Was CARICOM in surplus or deficit in 2024? On the published thirteen-state series, a merchandise surplus of US$1.90 billion. Exports were US$32.37 billion against imports of US$30.47 billion. What is the largest deficit on record? US$10.01 billion in 2019, the largest in the series running back to 1973\. The largest surplus is US$4.40 billion in 2022. Is there a 2025 series? No. The published workbooks run to 2024 and were updated in July 2026. Does the region trade more with itself than it imports in food? No. Intra-regional exports of all goods were US$2.18 billion in 2024, against food imports of US$5.12 billion.