ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the wider political significance of the regionalization of the North American apparel commodity chain by examining the issue of NAFTA parity for the Caribbean, which culminated in the enactment by the United States of the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) in May 2000. It addresses three inter-related aspects of US-Caribbean political economy. The chapter seeks to untangle the relationship between this political process and apparel production in the Caribbean through an examination of the specific entitlements offered to the region by the CBTPA. It provides with a broader measure of the new political economy of US-Caribbean relations, which is the ultimate purpose of the study as a whole. The chapter begins by attempting to understand the politics of US trade policy against the backdrop of the broader set of structural changes within the global economy. It then focuses on the specific entitlements offered to the Caribbean apparel industry by the CBTPA.
