The Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) warned that escalating tensions between Venezuela and the United States could disrupt regional trade routes, raising the risk of higher costs and delays across Caribbean supply chains.
“That would concern us as a chamber, especially if we have trading partners in that arena,” chamber president Paul Inniss said during a press conference on Thursday at the chamber’s headquarters in Deighton Road,
St Michael.
“It is one of the, I guess, risks that we have to factor in as much as a similar thing might happen somewhere else in terms of impacting and affecting the supply chain or disrupting the supply chain. So that in itself would have some unintended consequences that we would need to manage through and think through.”
He noted that the chamber has already begun advising members on business continuity planning, emphasising the current reliance on complex shipping routes.
He added: “One of the things I’ve learned is that a lot of our goods come from South [Latin America] up north and then come back down, which to me we need to do something about. And that’s what actually adds the inflated costs.”
Inniss also highlighted ongoing efforts to strengthen trade ties with South America. “And we’ve had in the recent past, within the last few months, a significant amount of not only overtures, but meetings with South American countries wanting to partner with us here in Barbados to actually move goods into our space directly,” he said.
On Venezuela’s role as a key oil and gas player, Innis downplayed immediate impacts on Barbados. “We currently don’t import much from Venezuela, if anything at all. I know it’s very little import from, so we restarted some, we had some initial, we had two engagements with the Venezuelan delegations. I think one around August and one a month ago. So from the perspective of the cost from Venezuela impacting us, it’s very little.”
He acknowledged that global oil markets were already reacting to the development.
“[On Wednesday], there was some announcement that impacted the cost of oil, the barrel costs went up, so the markets actually moved in consequence of the announcements that were made yesterday. So you can probably expect a knock-on effect on oil prices given the contribution of Venezuela. But I think it’s still early days before we can see any significant impact.”
Concerns were also raised over imports from Trinidad, which has received less Venezuelan oil. The chamber’s economic advisory committee chair Christopher Sambrano said: “I think there were certain agreements that they had, but that was more future-orientated. So I’m not sure it’s going to have a direct impact immediately. I think it really is more about partnerships and future development that Trinidad was trying to position itself to get a supply of oil and gas to fuel its industry. I think [it’s] a bit more fuel-orientated, but I think it does add to uncertainty.
“And so with uncertainty, obviously, we have to be nimble enough as a business community and as a society to deal with these things. There’s nothing we haven’t dealt with before. We have had a couple wars. We had the war with Russia while it was on the other side of the globe. It had significant impacts on energy and supply chains.”
Speaking on the immediate concerns for Barbados, Sambrano emphasised the potential impact on the country as a tourist destination. “I guess it’s right in our backyard now, so it’s really more about does it impact us as a destination and people coming to the region. That would be maybe my more immediate concern. So our hope is that this is dealt with quickly and efficiently by the parties. I mean, our leaders were trying to maintain us as a zone of peace. We really don’t want to have war in our backyard. People come here to get away in distress, and that’s what we want.
“And so our hope is that it’s dealt with quickly, but I think we just have to be nimble and be ready to work with our partners to react to what comes our way. We are takers in these scenarios, but I think our politicians are really trying to influence the way it’s dealt with.”
The chamber of commerce said it continues to explore direct sourcing options with the Ministry of International Trade in a bid to ease potential inflationary pressures on imported goods. (SZB)
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