Describes bilateral and multilateral trade agreements that this country is party to, including with the United States. Includes websites and other resources where U.S. companies can get more information on how to take advantage of these agreements.
Last Published: 7/8/2019

As a signatory of the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement, Barbados follows the Agreement’s Code of Good Practice for the Preparation, Adoption and Application of Standards.  BNSI serves as the WTO TBT Enquiry Point and notifies the WTO of its development agenda. 

For the most part, there have not been significant technical trade barriers due to compliance problems.  In order to facilitate international trade, Barbados tries to  formulate its national standards on  international standards.  Some of the BNSI mandatory standards are based on Codex Alimentarius standards.  Importers of certain U.S. products labeled with expiration dates have encountered problems in the past due the the difference in the dating systems in the United States and Barbados.  There have been no reports of similar concerns recently.

Barbados is a member of the World Customs Organisation (WCO), the WTO, and the Caribbean Customs Law Enforcement Council (CCLEC).

Prepared by our U.S. Embassies abroad. With its network of 108 offices across the United States and in more than 75 countries, the U.S. Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce utilizes its global presence and international marketing expertise to help U.S. companies sell their products and services worldwide. Locate the U.S. Commercial Service trade specialist in the U.S. nearest you by visiting http://export.gov/usoffices.