In a sweeping move announced Friday, July 24, 2026, the United States has implemented a new wave of tariffs targeting 60 countries, including several prominent Caribbean trade partners. Among those hit are CARICOM members the Bahamas, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the Dominican Republic.
While major global powers such as China, the European Union, and the United Kingdom face a 10 per cent tax, the Bahamas, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Dominican Republic have been hit with a higher tariff of 12.5 per cent on all goods exported to the US. According to the Office of the US Trade Representative, these new duties are remarkably broad, covering 99.4 per cent of all US imports.
The US government justified the targeted measures by claiming that the affected countries have inadequately enforced bans on goods produced by forced labor. These new tariffs are intended to address these enforcement gaps across the listed nations.
The new trade penalties took effect at 12:01 am on Friday. Their implementation coincided exactly with the expiration of stopgap levies on global imports. Those previous levies had been imposed by the Trump administration following a significant legal defeat at the Supreme Court.
As these new measures take hold, Caribbean nations now face a more expensive landscape for accessing the American market, particularly compared to other international trade blocs.
