CARICOM Leaders Detail Ferry, Energy and Pricing Plans to Ease Caribbean Cost of Living

Caribbean Community Heads of Government have agreed to share strategies meant to soften the impact of rising fuel prices and the broader cost of living across the region, including tax adjustments on fuel imports, expanded welfare support, and an accelerated push for an affordable intra-regional ferry service.

Following the close of the 51st Regular Meeting of Caricom Heads of Government in Saint Lucia, Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre, who chaired the four-day meeting, told journalists that rising costs were affecting every member state, though the region has little control over one key driver.

“Every island is suffering from an increase in the cost of living,” Pierre said. “But there is one factor we have no control over, which is the price of fuel.”

Prime Minister Pierre explained that governments had instead focused on sharing what has worked domestically.

“What we decide to do is we decide to share experiences among ourselves,” he said, noting that Saint Lucia and Barbados were among the islands that had already adjusted duties on select items to soften the impact on households.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who leads the Caribbean Single Market and Economy portfolio, shared that her government had introduced a cost-of-living allowance of $100 a month for pensioners, alongside a 30 percent increase in welfare rates, to protect the most vulnerable households from rising prices.

She said some countries were also developing apps to give consumers real-time price comparisons across stores rather than relying on outdated pricing information.

The Barbados prime minister said the region’s most significant long-term initiative to reduce living costs is a planned intra-regional ferry service aimed at cutting the cost of moving cargo between islands.

She said private-sector arrangements to source vessels could take up to a year, but that discussions were underway to use an existing Trinidad and Tobago vessel as a proof of concept in the Southern and Eastern Caribbean while that process continues.

“This is a work in progress,” Mottley said, adding that treaty arrangements for mutual recognition of licences and insurance would need to be finalised to allow cargo vehicles to move between ports.

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said her government was pursuing cost relief through affordable regional healthcare, pointing to a national facility for fitting artificial limbs and a fully functional children’s hospital now being made available to other Caricom nationals at reduced rates.

She said Trinidad and Tobago was also offering fully trained doctors to support health systems across member states.

Meanwhile, St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr Terrance Drew argued that the region’s cost-of-living volatility stems from an energy problem rather than a resource shortage.

“We have an energy-harnessing issue,” Dr Drew said, citing wind, solar, geothermal and wave resources still largely untapped across the Caribbean.

Dr Drew said the country intends to share that energy through an undersea cable with other islands, including Antigua and Barbuda, to help lower their electricity costs.