St. Lucia - Foreign trade

The economy of St. Lucia is highly dependent on foreign trade. Agriculture is the major export earner. Foreign trade continues to be crucial to St. Lucia and a variety of duty exemption and tax credits are implemented for trade inducements. Nevertheless, some traders complain of the country's protectionist attitude towards selected goods.

For the most part, St. Lucia exports bananas and other fruits (52%), and alcoholic beverages (15%). Other export commodities include circuit breakers (11.5%), clothes (6.6%), and paper (2.9%).

In 2000 St. Lucia's imports were distributed among the following categories:

St. Lucia's exports go primarily to the UK (53%), the US (18%), and other Caribbean islands (24%). Imports come from the US (41%), other Caribbean islands (21%), the UK (8.6%), and Japan (4.5%).