r/Jamaica • u/Sensitive-Pie-6595 • 3d ago

Economy Tariffs shouldn't really Hurt us

Those who live in Yard know that for so long we have been creating our own products, and buying from anywhere but the US. This goes back to the 1980s when America would give us 'string loans'... that is... they loan us $X but it can only be used to buy American products.

There was a time when in a supermarket big loooong aisles full of US stuff.

Over the years we started to quietly replace them with local products so that we didn't those loans.

We also started buying from other islands so that we had stuff from T'dad and of course, China.

Just before Trump did his tariff thing I looked at where my stuff came from.

Okay, everything that plugs in comes from China. Almost all my clothes come from China.

Now, my groceries.

I buy local stuff and stuff that comes from T'dad and every where else. Like this yogurt I use on my cereal comes from France, the other from Spain and the cereal is Jamaican. The coffee is Jamaican and I use Lasco instead of coffee mate.

The kind of flat breads/wraps i use are made in Jamaica as are the vegetables, soup, porridge, chocolate... in fact... I read labels before purchase.

if you look on the roads we have Toyota, Sukuzi... I haven't seen a US car since some years ago this Dodge.

I think Jamaica is not going to suffer very much because we wisely moved to standing on our own.

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u/xraxraxra 3d ago edited 3d ago

The United States are far and beyond our biggest trade partners in both imports and exports. There are verifiable numbers behind this fact that appear in the gleaner every week. This will definitely have an effect on us.

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u/Sensitive-Pie-6595 3d ago

not if we don't buy stuff from the US. I just had cereal that is made here, coffee that is grown here.

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u/SAMURAI36 3d ago

Breden, JA imports nearly 50% of our products. What you're saying is a moot point.

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u/Sensitive-Pie-6595 3d ago

well not in my yard. But then i am kinda local focused

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u/SAMURAI36 3d ago

That's still irrelevant tho. You said Jamaica. Not just your yard.

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u/Sensitive-Pie-6595 3d ago

let us start from China NOT shipping to the US which ships to us. China uses Mexico as it's middle.

So, China evades tariffs, Mexico gets its take, and we don't feel a thing

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u/SAMURAI36 3d ago

This is a lot of wishing that you're doing, Bredren. And honestly, I don't think you have the best grasp of the topic.

It's true, the US is JA's biggest exporter, but the other countries put together outnumber the US by almost twice.

https://globaledge.msu.edu/countries/jamaica/tradestats