Is market access enough to transform Caribbean trade? As tariffs, geopolitical tensions and a weakening multilateral trading system reshape global commerce, the Caribbean faces a deeper challenge: building the productive capacity to compete.

International trade expert Alicia Nicholls, Founder of Caribbean Trade Law and Development and Fellow at the Shridath Ramphal Centre, UWI, joins Joseph Cox to examine the future of Caribbean trade policy, CARICOM and regional economic integration.

The discussion explores why decades of trade preferences have not produced their full potential; how persistent intra-regional non-tariff barriers constrain Caribbean commerce; and why production, services, industrial policy, AI, green technology and stronger regional trade must become central to the Caribbean's economic strategy.

At its core is the question of economic agency: can small Caribbean states build the productive capacity and regional cohesion needed to exercise greater influence in an increasingly fragmented and transactional global economy?

Also in this episode:

CBR Briefing — Disinformation, Free Expression and the Caribbean's Legislative Dilemma. As AI makes fabricated content increasingly convincing and scalable, we examine how Caribbean governments can confront deliberate disinformation through education, enforcement, platform accountability and targeted legislation—without undermining legitimate expression.

The Cost of Getting Here. Rising airfares, constrained airline capacity and volatile jet-fuel prices are creating another potential vulnerability for tourism-dependent Caribbean economies. We examine why the cost of reaching the Caribbean is not simply a tourism issue, but increasingly a question of competitiveness and macroeconomic resilience.

Market Brief tracks Jamaica's widening fiscal deficit and 18% decline in tourism earnings, record Cayman stay-over tourism, Bahamas inflation and import growth, Trinidad and Tobago's improved Moody's outlook, Grenada's additional public spending, Guyana's expanding role in regional food security and developments across Caribbean financial markets.

Global Pulse examines rising oil and gas prices, diverging US and Canadian labour markets, widening trade imbalances, resilient Asian growth, China's accelerating solar transition and changing global monetary and financial conditions.

Caribbean Business Review delivers independent analysis of Caribbean economics, business, markets, trade, public policy, governance and strategic risk.

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