DURING the 1930s, the world economy experienced its worst crisis in the period known as the Great Depression. It was characterised by economic contraction, decline in international trade, high unemployment and increased poverty. Jamaica’s economy in the last decade has had similar features.

The US economy did not experience an economic recovery until it started to export more to the European countries involved in World War II. With few exceptions, the countries that have achieved high and sustained rates of economic growth were those that increased their exports. Notable examples are Britain in the 19th Century, the US and Singapore in the 20th Century and China in the 21st Century.

The history of Jamaica reveals that the periods of high economic growth were periods in which export earnings increased. The current dilemma is that Jamaica imports far more than it earns from tourism and the export of goods. The gap is made up by remittances, inflows of foreign investment and borrowing. The excessive borrowing over many years has produced the debt crisis of Jamaica.

The lesson is simple. Export or remain in a state of underdevelopment. The imperative is simple. Jamaica must earn more foreign exchange by exporting more goods and services.

Tourism, which should be defined as export, is producing as much as it can, but it is not enough and we cannot borrow any more. The answer is to export more goods.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade A J Nicholson, speaking at a Jamaica House press briefing last Thursday, urged the private sector to export more by taking advantage of the facilities provided by the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI). He was referring to the underutilisation of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act.

This Act and the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act provide preferential duty-free access to the US market for nearly all forms of goods.

Also last week, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller made a similar but more hortatory plea for Jamaica to make use of the EU-CARIFORUM Economic Partnership Agreement. A similar comment could be made for the Caribbean-Canada Trade Agreement.

This newspaper is again calling for increased exports to be the priority of Jamaica’s economic policy and for a national export plan, as well as for the Government to change the incentive structure to encourage exports. We are not interested in hearing the usual litany of complaints about the impediments to production and exports. These actions have to be preceded by a change of the anti-export pro-import state of mind.

In this regard we want to commend Minister Anthony Hylton for leading a trade mission of 18 companies to Cuba. We hope that the purpose is to sell export goods and not to import cigars and rum, both of which are made in Jamaica.

Change starts with a change of mind. We commend the immortal words of President Franklin D Roosevelt in his 1933 inaugural presidential address when he called on the US to have the courage and conviction to win the battle against the Great Depression and to restore economic growth. He said: “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.”