18 October 2025
By Publisher Ray Carmen
The United States once prided itself on being the global champion of free markets — but the empire of open trade is now tightening its borders with tariffs that look more like barricades.
In a move that economists worldwide are calling “economic self-harm,” Washington has announced sweeping import tariffs on a broad range of goods — from Chinese electronics and European cars to Caribbean agricultural exports. The justification is the usual one: to “protect American jobs” and “restore balance.” But beneath the rhetoric lies a deeper anxiety — an America wrestling with its own economic fragility.
The signs are everywhere: record federal debt surpassing $35 trillion, rising consumer prices, industrial slowdown, and a sharp decline in manufacturing competitiveness. Instead of addressing structural issues like innovation investment, wage stagnation, and productivity decline, policymakers have turned to tariffs — a blunt instrument wielded with dangerous confidence.
But history tells a different story. From the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 to the trade wars of the Trump era, tariffs rarely deliver prosperity. They inflate prices, cripple exporters, and alienate allies. They may rally voters for a season, but they erode global trust for a generation.
This new wave of American protectionism risks alienating its trading partners and accelerating a quiet realignment already underway — one where nations of the Global South, led by China and emerging economies, forge their own trade alliances free from Washington’s shadow.
If tariffs were meant to make America great again, they might instead make it isolated again.
The Caribbean , a region that has long balanced diplomacy and trade between East and West — now watches carefully. For small island economies reliant on fair access to U.S. markets, America’s tariffs don’t just raise costs; they threaten livelihoods.
It’s a reminder that when giants wage trade wars, it’s often the small nations that pay the price.
The world is changing fast , and if America’s leaders fail to recognize that cooperation, not confrontation, is the new currency of power, they may find their tariffs have built not walls of strength, but barriers to their own survival.
