Barbados - Market Opportunities Barbados - Market Opportunities
Opportunities remain in the services sector, especially in the areas of international financial services, tourism, information technology, global education services, health, and cultural services. Investment opportunities also exist in agriculture, agro-processing, and energy, including renewable energy. The government is moving forward with plans for the addition of new branded hotels to its tourism infrastructure. Smaller local hotels continue to refurbish their existing hotel structures. Recently, the government announced it was seeking to upgrade the existing policy on land use and zoning to open up more areas for development. Barbados also revised its tax regime, in which there was a convergence of domestic and international tax rates. This was in response to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action 5 Initiative that addressed harmful tax practices.
Barbados is a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member country of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). Once fully in place, the CSME will reduce or remove restrictions on the movement of goods, services, labor, and capital throughout the region. (See www.caricom.org for more information.) Barbados imports 70 percent of its food, over one third of which comes from the United States.
Trade opportunities will remain for U.S. exporters of hotel and restaurant supplies, specialty agriculture products, and renewable energy technology and consumer products. Barbados also has very generous bilateral trade and investment and tax treaties with countries including China.