Skip to main content
Support

By Robert Kurz, Al Cumming, James Murphy, Julia Rauner, Jose Orive, and Paul Spencer

From the Preface

The Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) was launched with great fanfare nearly a decade ago. The Reagan administration hoped to foster economic growth for the nations of the region through export promotion and improved access to United States markets. Despite initial attention from the press and the scholarly community, in the past few years CBI has been overshadowed by other United States policy initiatives in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Recent events, most notably the Bush administration's efforts to use CBI to revitalize the Panamanian and Nicaraguan economies and the United States Senate hearings on CBI II, suggested a new period of interest and attention for CBI. In order to promote further study and analysis of CBI in this period , the Latin American Program hosted a seminar entitled "United States Economic Policy in the Caribbean: What Next for CBI?" on March 15, 1990.

Robert Kurz, a Guest Scholar at The Brookings Institution, began the session with a presentation on the history of the initiative. He was followed by Al Cumming, Legislative Assistant to Senator Bob Graham (DFL), who spoke on CBI II legislation, which was about to be debated in the Senate at the time of the seminar. James Murphy, Assistant United States Trade Representative for Bilateral Affairs, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Commodity Policy presented the Bush administration 's Caribbean objectives and their relation to CBI II. CBI implementation was discussed by Julia Rauner, International Economist, International Trade Administration, United States Department of Commerce. These papers were followed by responses from representatives of CBI recipient countries. Commercial Counselor Jose Orive of the Guatemalan embassy represented the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and Central America and Counselor Paul Spencer of the embassy of Antigua and Barbuda presented the English-speaking Caribbean perspective. A review of the subsequent discussion, written by Program Associate Andrew I. Rudman, follows Mr. Spencer's remarks.

Tagged

Related Program

Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more