The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has selected Belize as the inaugural pilot country for a groundbreaking regional industry development initiative designed to reinforce sectors protected under Article 164 of the CARICOM treaty. The three-year project, which is set to run from September 2026 through August 2029, is a collaborative effort between the Directorate General for Foreign Trade and the CARICOM Development Fund, and will focus its initial efforts on three key Belizean sectors: furniture manufacturing, animal feed production, and turmeric processing.
To understand the full scope of this initiative, it is critical to contextualize the role of Article 164 within the CARICOM framework. This treaty provision was crafted to deliver temporary trade protection to carefully selected industries operating in the bloc’s Less Developed Countries, with the core goal of nurturing domestic production capabilities and helping young local industries gain a foothold in regional markets. The new project does not replace this existing protection; instead, it acts as a complementary intervention that goes beyond trade safeguards to address structural challenges holding these sectors back.
Belize’s three priority sectors were not chosen arbitrarily. A rigorous selection process was carried out that combined multi-level regional and national consultations with direct, ongoing engagement with enterprises already operating under Article 164 protection. This inclusive approach ensured that the sectors selected for the pilot reflect the most pressing needs and highest growth potential across eligible Belizean industries.
Over the course of the 36-month implementation period, the project will deliver targeted support across six key areas: tailored industry-specific market and production research, evidence-based policy development guidance, comprehensive workforce and leadership capacity building, training and infrastructure support to prepare local businesses for export expansion, investments to enhance climate resilience for production facilities and supply chains, and end-to-end support to strengthen and optimize local and regional value chains.
The initiative was officially kicked off in a formal Stakeholder and Ministry Kick-Off Session, which featured key addresses from Kyron Barker, Acting Regional Director of the CARICOM Development Fund, and Oscar Arnold, Chief Executive Officer of Belize’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. Stakeholders across the CARICOM bloc are closely watching the Belize pilot, as the insights, challenges, and successful strategies that emerge from its implementation will be used to refine and scale the program for eventual rollout across other eligible Less Developed Countries in the region.