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Caribbean Islands Foreign Trade and Balance of Payments
Bananas accounted for 40.1 percent of Dominica's merchandise
exports during the period 1980 to 1983. This product was followed
by laundry and toilet soaps (34.3 percent), citrus products (4.3
percent), and all other commodities (21.3 percent). Exports
totalled US$32.9 million in 1983. The overwhelming percentage of
Dominican exports that year were destined for members of the
Commonwealth of Nations (see Appendix B). Britain absorbed 43.7
percent of all exports, followed by the non-OECS members of the
Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom--see Appendix C)
(41.8 percent), and the OECS (7.3 percent). Only 2.4 percent of
exports were destined for the United States. Trade restrictions
within Caricom restrained the development of the manufacturing
sector.
Consumer goods--consisting of foods, beverages, tobacco, oils
and fats, and manufactured goods--represented 56.1 percent of
merchandise imports in 1983. Food, beverages, and tobacco alone
composed 24.5 percent of imports. Other major segments of Dominican
imports were intermediate goods (chemicals, fuels and lubricants,
and raw materials) at 21.5 percent and capital goods (machinery and
transport equipment) at 18.3 percent. Dominica's import bill for
1983 was US$49.3 million. The United States supplied 23.1 percent
of imports that year, followed by Britain (18.1 percent), the OECS
(14.5 percent), and the non-OECS members of Caricom (12.5 percent).
Continued debt servicing obligations and trade deficits were
the largest burdens on the country's balance of payments in the
1980s. In 1985 debt service payments on the country's US$48-million
external debt reached US$5.5 million, some 15 percent of government
revenues. Increased indebtedness was almost entirely related to
accumulated project debt, virtually all of which was externally
financed. Because of the need to raise money to service the debt,
the health of the export sector was increasingly important. In
1985, however, the island's trade deficit increased to US$28
million, a direct result of growing protectionism in Caricom.
Data as of November 1987
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