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This report, the fourth of its kind in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), highlights statistics on International Trade in Services for fourteen (14) Member States of the Region. It reflects the outcomes of the capacity building efforts that were undertaken since 2001 to develop statistics on International Trade in Services for key users such as trade analysts and negotiators.
Similar to the third publication, this publication is a mix of data that Member States actually produced using the Extended Balance of Payments Services (EBOPS) classification and data compiled by the Regional Statistics Programme (RSP) of the CARICOM Secretariat. The RSP compiled annual Trade in Services Statistics up to 2018 for 14 Member States, namely, the countries of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU), The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. Data were sourced from the websites of the Central Banks of nine (9) Member States, while four (4) Member States submitted data directly to the RSP. All nine (9) Member States for which data were extracted presented their information in the EBOPS format; none of the four (4) Member States that submtted their data presented the same in EBOPS format. 12 of the countries produce their BOP statistics in accordance with the Sixth Edition of the Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6). As at the end of 2018, Barbados was the only Member State yet to implement the BPM6 recommendations as well as present its information in the EBOPS 2010 format.
While acknowledging that data gaps exist in the data, this report reflects the attempts made by countries to provide detailed services statistics, post the projects that were executed in the Region in 2001/2002 and 2004/2005 and more recently building on the work undertaken during the EU’s Ninth EDF Project in 2010 in the Region.
