COVID-19 has exposed some of the deep-seated scars of free trade on small economies, including those within the Caribbean. So it is more important than ever to look at how the Caribbean typically draws the short-end of the stick in the free trading system.
加勒比海无缝集成到全球贸易体系的努力是具有挑战性的。由过去塑造殖民规则，该地区对全球化的固有脆弱性，其规模很小，对自然灾害和经济冲击的敏感性加剧了。通常，当将整合到全球贸易体系中时，它可以刺激创新，改善粮食安全并促进经济增长。全球融资机构和贸易组织，例如世界银行，国际货币基金组织（IMF）和世界贸易组织（WTO），无情地促进了对不断开放和开放的承诺自由贸易市场。根据克里斯汀·拉加德（Christine Lagarde）过去，IMF董事总经理：“数十年来，贸易融合有助于增加繁荣，减少贫困，传播新技术并提高生产力。对于世界各地的人们来说，它降低了生活成本，并创造了数百万个新工作，工资更高。”但是，她还承认：“并非每个人都受益，贸易体系中存在扭曲，需要改革。”
The agricultural trading capabilities of the Caribbean region have been severely crippled by the policies of free trade and restructuring programs. These prescribed reforms have failed to develop important infrastructures, efficient technologies and essential support services, ― inevitably hindering economic growth, crippling rural livelihoods and impacting food security. Furthermore, Caribbean governments have been restricted against providing intervention strategies aimed at stimulating growth within the agricultural sector. According to the联合国食品和农业组织通过这些减少的补贴，加勒比经济体“对其农业生产能力造成了损害”。获奖纪录片“生活和债务”斯蒂芬妮·布莱克（Stephanie Black）展示了自由贸易如何破坏牙买加曾经成功的乳制品行业，那里的当地市场充满了美国和欧洲的廉价进口粉牛奶。小型奶农无法直接与发达国家的大型补贴农民竞争。该行业遭受了巨大的损失，从当地的未经巴氏消毒牛奶，奶牛的成熟前屠杀以及许多奶农的生计丧失。托尼·韦斯，西安大略大学的副教授，加勒比农村发展专家，讲述了“牙买加奶农的形象倾倒了他们无法出售的新鲜牛奶”。即使已经尝试振兴乳制品行业，但其当前的运营仅是其前身的一部分。
持续的叙述是，如果小经济体在遵守自由贸易政策和协议方面保持纪律处分，那么世界市场上的不公平竞争最终将变得有益。根据乐施会，“国际贸易是由规则构成的一款游戏，该规则是为了确保他们（发展中国家]无法获胜的规则。”通过与欧盟（EU）的洛梅大会相提并论，强调了这一点。该公约提供了欧盟和71 ACP（亚洲，加勒比海和太平洋）之间的优惠贸易和市场通道。1989年，该公约允许所有加勒比海出口纳入欧洲市场免税，并为香蕉和糖等商品提供特殊计划。但是，即使美国本身并未向欧洲出口香蕉，他们也抱怨（代表有影响力和强大的美国拥有的Agro-Tncs Dole，Chiquita和Delmonte已经主导了欧洲市场）正在煽动不公平的交易环境。这引发了'Banana Wars’在美国和欧盟之间的贸易战中间，捕获了加勒比海小香蕉生产商的地方。著名的加勒比学者和政策专家教授安东尼·布莱恩（Anthony T. Bryan）further highlighted that Caribbean nations viewed this action by the U.S. as “insensitive to their plight and inimical to their needs― and initiated to satisfy domestic special interests at home.”
与廉价的劳动力和大型种植园相比，加勒比州的生产成本较高，土地规模较小，对自然灾害的易感性更高，从而使拉丁美洲领土上的Agro-TNC农场受益。很难推测，取消优先安排为该地区创造了“公平交易环境”。然而，糖协议也面临着竞争性出口商的类似投诉。根据世贸组织的说法，优惠安排侵犯了其所有成员的平等待遇。欧盟和ACP国家之间的这些协议的灭亡增加了失业的风险，并将香蕉和甘蔗驱赶到诸如国家的贫困国家中圣卢西亚，圣文森特，牙买加和多米尼加。这些行业现在是他们以前的自己的阴影。
即使有了这些知识，世贸组织，国际货币基金组织和世界银行，也无情地鼓励发展中国家几乎没有贸易限制。根据托尼·韦斯（Tony Weis）的说法，这些组织一直在实施他们的“饼干切割经济改革”on small economies. They claim that in order to establish an impartial market-oriented agricultural trading system, support initiatives and trade barriers must be removed. However the联合国食品和农业组织强调了“对多边协议的承诺的双重标准”，在这些协议中，欧盟和美国等主要的交易区以技术法规的形式实施了保护主义政策，即使小州的国内市场也越来越难以进入其市场不断被外国进口淹没。这进一步重申了索菲亚·墨菲（Sophia Murphy），国际可持续发展研究所的农业和投资高级专家，他们承认：“美国和欧盟实践双重标准在对发展中国家的自由化倡导自由化方面，但增加了对自己的农业出口部门的保护”。这反映了过去的行动，在德国和美国等发达国家支持贸易保护主义政策背后的年轻行业，并拒绝了自由贸易的理想，直到他们被公认为主要的经济大国。根据乐施会, developing states experience financial losses of over US$100 billion, from the cost of all protectionist policies in developed countries; a cost which outweighs the benefits of development aid.
On the surface, the rules of the WTO control the degree to which countries can implement protectionist policies to guard themselves from increased competition. However behind this “facade of a ‘membership-driven’ organization is a governance system based on a财富的独裁统治。”富裕国家与小型发展中经济体之间的权力关系不平衡，加强了全球阶段的议价能力差异。此外，除WTO外，强大的TNC还扩展了对贸易政策方向的影响。因此正如我们所说的那样，不像我们一样。”
Small economies are forced to operate within a prejudicial free trading system, and are further limited by their inherent vulnerabilities to gain a competitive advantage. In 2016,IMF经济学家Jonathan Ostry, Prakash Loungani, and Davide Furceri admitted that “instead of delivering growth, some neoliberal policies have increased inequality, in turn jeopardizing durable expansion.” In essence, the benefits of global free trade have been designed to favor developed countries. Therefore, unless the bias against agriculture in small economies is removed, then developed countries will continue to increase in wealth, while the former become even more marginalized. Strengthening intra-regional partnerships can improve bargaining power during these negotiations, such as proposing differentiated treatment within the WTO rules to accommodate the vulnerabilities of small economies. Caribbean territories can also seek to improve their competitiveness to counteract the negative impacts of free trade, by introducing policies that strengthen production and manufacturing systems geared towards the export market. These policies may be in the form of reducing the import of various crops produced domestically, enhancing institutional support, improving technology, and investing in research and development. Even though Caribbean territories have been constrained by trade policies of dependency under the guise of development, their resiliency to ensure national self-sufficiency and food security remains.
