An Evaluation of The Competitiveness of Selected Manufacturing Products in Barbados During the Past Decade

In an environment of ongoing liberalisation of trade, the key to the survival of manufacturing in Barbados is to vigorously adopt modes of production that are international competitive. Using a policy analysis matrix (PAM), `a la Monke and Pearson (����), this paper attempts to shed some light on the burning issue of competitiveness of manufacturing in Barbados over the period ����-�00�. Three indicators (domestic resource cost, the nominal protection coefficient, and the effective protection coefficient), which are derived from the PAM, are used as the basis for the assessment of the competitiveness of forty-three products traded both regionally and extra- regionally. In addition, two profitability measures (private and social profits) per unit of output traded are estimated.