Lower import duties on April 1st

Tomorrow is budget day but one announcement in Wednesday’s budget speech will not come as a surprise. Under the guidelines of CARICOM’s common external tariff, on April first some seven hundred imported items will have another five percent knocked off their rate of duty. The list of goods ranges from baby clothes to carpets and includes popular toiletries and food products as well as air conditioners and TV sets. The common external tariff means that all CARICOM members will have similar rates of duties for imports from outside the region while products produced within the region will be traded on a duty free basis. VAT, however, is not affected.