CHINA is closing in on a milestone in its trade with Jamaica.

After selling a record US$878.6 million worth of goods to the island last year, the Asian manufacturing giant is now within striking distance of becoming a US$1-billion-a-year supplier to Jamaica. And it has got there quickly.

In 2021, Jamaica imported US$463.8 million worth of goods from China, according to official data compass, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin). Four years later, that bill had climbed by almost US$415 million, with China’s share of the island’s imports moving from 7.8 per cent to 11.7 per cent.

The increase last year alone was steep. Imports from China jumped by US$181.8 million, or just over 26 per cent, from US$696.8 million in 2024.

But look beyond the clothes, shoes, furniture, and other finished goods for which China is well-known and a large part of the business is in machinery, equipment, industrial supplies, and building materials.

In 2021 Jamaica imported US$463.8 million worth of goods from China, according to official data compass, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin). Four years later, that bill had climbed by almost US$415 million, with China’s share of the island’s imports moving from 7.8 per cent to 11.7 per cent.

Detailed trade tables supplied to the Jamaica Observer by Statin show imports of machinery and transport equipment from China rising from US$321.3 million in 2024 to US$416.2 million last year, accounting for almost half of everything Jamaica bought from the Asian country.

Manufactured goods classified mainly by material, a category that includes industrial supplies and building materials, climbed even faster, from US$196 million to US$271.3 million. Together those two categories accounted for more than three-quarters of Jamaica’s imports from China last year.

Chemicals and related products increased from US$39.8 million to US$44.2 million, while miscellaneous manufactured articles moved from US$125.9 million to US$132.8 million.

Statin said some of the leading individual products imported from China over the five-year period included new pneumatic rubber tyres for motor cars, parts for air-conditioning machines, and lithium-ion and other electric accumulators. Its broader machinery and transport category also covers vehicles, industrial machinery, telecommunications equipment, and other technical components.

SEAGA… we have the ability to use our location as an asset… and we have to develop our economy as a logistics-centred economy where people can come in, add value to products here, and then distribute them throughout the Americas

The data have renewed a much older debate about what Jamaica should be importing and what it should be trying to make, assemble or otherwise add value to itself.

Businessman and manufacturer Metry Seaga does not believe the answer is to attempt to replace imports wholesale.

“Truth is, we’re an island and we don’t have a great supply chain here in the island. So because of that, we are going to import product. There’s no doubt about that. And we have to import various things,” Seaga, a former Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association president said in a recent interview with the Business Observer.

“However, what we need to do is, we need to start realising that our policies need to have the ability to force people to buy with a local component,” he continued.

He wants Government to start with industries that already benefit from tax concessions, arguing that the support should come with a greater effort to keep some of the spending and production in Jamaica.

“If you’re giving an industry — the hotel industry, the BPO industry — if you are giving them benefits, tax benefits, then what you need to ask Government to say to them is, ‘listen, you need to have some value-added production for the import of your products’,” Seaga said.

“If you buy furniture, if there’s no capacity here, which there is, then buy from a local furniture manufacturer or one that’s in and does semi-production here. We need to add more value to the industries that are getting benefits from the Government,” he argued.

Seaga has long pushed local production, but his thinking on what that should look like has changed over the years. Full-scale manufacturing of a finished product is not always necessary, he reasoned. Jamaica could import inputs and undertake part of the production process here, particularly where the finished goods can then be sold into much larger markets.

“The opportunities are endless, and I’ll tell you why; because Jamaica is located in the best place in the Caribbean, in the Americas actually. Where Jamaica is located in the Americas is like where Singapore is located in Asia,” added Seaga, who also sits as chairman of JFP Limited, a manufacturer of custom-built commercial contract furniture.

“We have the ability to use our location as an asset… and we have to develop our economy as a logistics-centred economy where people can come in, add value to products here, and then distribute them throughout the Americas. We have never taken advantage of that,” he added.

China was not always so far ahead of Jamaica’s other suppliers.

In 2021 Jamaica imported US$463.8 million worth of goods from China, according to official data compass, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin). Four years later, that bill had climbed by almost US$415 million, with China’s share of the island’s imports moving from 7.8 per cent to 11.7 per cent.

Statin’s tables show that in 2021 Brazil sold US$514.3 million worth of goods to Jamaica, more than China’s US$463.8 million. China moved ahead the following year and has continued to pull away.

By 2025 it was Jamaica’s second-largest source of imports, behind only the United States. US goods entering Jamaica were valued at US$2.83 billion last year, compared with China’s US$878.6 million, Brazil’s US$396.8 million, Japan’s US$299.7 million and Trinidad and Tobago’s US$279.1 million.

Responding to queries from the Business Observer about China’s growing share of Jamaica’s import market, the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) said the pace of the increase mirrors a wider global trend, particularly in Chinese exports of manufactured goods and capital equipment.

PIOJ also pointed to evidence in Statin data that China’s share of machinery and electrical goods has been increasing while the US share has declined.

“Statin trade data show declining US share in machinery and electrical goods, while China’s share has risen,” the PIOJ said.

It listed lower costs and China’s economies of scale, financing linked to Chinese investment projects and the country’s place in global supply chains for intermediate goods among the factors behind the change.

Importantly, PIOJ noted that products featured heavily among China’s imports line up with demand from construction, tourism, renewable energy, and infrastructure projects locally. While electronics and appliances bought by households remain part of the trade, the institute said “investment-driven demand is the primary driver of the import surge.”

PIOJ, however, sees some risk in Jamaica becoming increasingly reliant on a handful of countries for important imports.

“China’s growing role in Jamaica’s trade is both an opportunity and a risk. It supports investment and growth but raises concerns about over-reliance and trade imbalance,” PIOJ said, adding that stronger domestic production, export development, and greater diversification would be important to improving Jamaica’s economic resilience.

It calculated Jamaica’s import concentration index at 0.303 in 2025 and pointed out that China was already supplying 19.9 per cent of the country’s capital imports in 2023, compared with 42.3 per cent from the United States.

“Supply shocks, such as shipping disruptions, geopolitical tensions [and] tariff changes, could significantly affect transport, construction and energy sectors, where Chinese inputs dominate,” PIOJ said.

For Jamaica to capture more of that spending locally, however, Seaga believes some longstanding problems have to be addressed.

He named poor productivity, bureaucracy, and labour arrangements among his biggest concerns, putting electricity costs lower down the list than is often heard in discussions about manufacturing.

“Our lack of productivity is a huge one. Bureaucracy is a huge one. The cost of electricity to me is less important,” he said. “People can do solar, there are opportunities to deal with electricity in many industries, not all. There are some that are very electricity intensive, and we can’t do those here.”

Seaga also wants it made easier for overseas workers with specialised skills to work alongside Jamaicans and pass on technical knowledge, while arguing that delays within the public sector continue to frustrate businesses trying to invest and expand.

“Productivity is key. Our labour laws are key. Relaxing the importation of labour is key; and bureaucracy, I don’t want to diminish that in any way. Bureaucracy in the Government, it is too difficult to get anything done,” he said.

“To move a document from one civil servant desk to another, the same office can take months. It is not right.”

The special economic zone programme, in his view, should be doing more to marry overseas investment with businesses already operating locally.

Seaga, who previously chaired the Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority (JSEZA), said the structure built for the SEZ regime is sound, but its development has been too slow.

“We do have a very good system with a good structure around it that international companies can live by and live in and operate in. Now, we need to move faster,” he said.

SEAGA… we have the ability to use our location as an asset… and we have to develop our economy as a logistics-centred economy where people can come in, add value to products here, and then distribute them throughout the Americas

That includes deliberately seeking investors whose operations could create more business for companies already producing in Jamaica.

“We need SEZ to be a vibrant organisation that’s looking to bring companies here to twin with manufacturers here and to bring industries that are relevant to the manufacturers here,” Seaga said.

“So if you have a box manufacturer here, you want to bring people who will use the box manufacturer here and increase their business tenfold. So those are the types of businesses you need to look for. Look for what is in your ecosystem now that’s efficient and effective, and then bring companies that come to Jamaica,” he argued.

While Jamaica’s purchases from China have been racing towards US$1 billion, the flow in the opposite direction remains small.

Exports to China were valued at US$25.9 million in 2025, up sharply from US$5.2 million a year earlier but still equal to only 1.6 per cent of Jamaica’s total exports. Jamaica bought almost US$34 worth of Chinese goods for every US$1 of goods it sold to China last year.

The detailed Statin tables show US$16 million of those exports falling under crude materials, inedible, except fuels; another US$5.9 million under mineral fuels, lubricants, and related materials; and US$3.9 million under food and live animals.

Statin describes the crude-materials category as raw, unprocessed commodities used as manufacturing inputs, while its food category covers products for human and animal consumption. The mineral-fuels category covers organic energy sources and petroleum-based products.

PIOJ sees room for Jamaica to tackle the imbalance from several directions, including more agro-processing and light manufacturing at home and some production of renewable-energy components. It also pointed to opportunities to grow sales to China.

“Target niche areas such as rum, coffee, seafood, cultural products, and services [tourism, education]. The World Trade Organisation data show China’s applied Most-Favoured-Nation tariff average is 7.5 per cent, but for many agricultural and cultural goods there is duty-free access,” the institution told the Business Observer.

Seaga, though, does not believe Jamaican manufacturers need to look halfway around the world first.

When asked how Jamaica could sell more to China, he quickly turned the conversation towards the United States.

“We don’t need to go so far as China. As I said, our location in the Americas allows us access to the richest market in the whole world, which is the United States of America,” he said.

“If most companies in Jamaica — which every company is a small company, even the greatest that Wisynco that we think of is a small company — if they get into one city in America with their products, it changes the shape of their business.”

“Whilst we want to sell to everywhere in the world — China, Africa, Europe, Asia, the rest of Asia — we don’t want to concentrate on far away yet. Let’s concentrate on who is beside us, America,” Seaga argued.

His idea of production is broad enough to include some of the relatively simple work that takes place between importing a product and selling it.

“Bring rice, package it here, label it here, use the packaging and the labelling from here. Use the labour that’s here to store it, to do the value-added,” Seaga said.

“Our economy is too small; and we need to grow that outside of Jamaica.

“It may not be that we’re manufacturing — complete manufacturing — but you may be doing semi-manufacturing or screwdriver industry or some form of value add.

“I don’t care what it is, just add some value here,” Seaga said.

The Business Observer also asked JSEZA about efforts to attract more manufacturing and assembly operations, including Chinese investment, and whether the SEZ framework is already helping Jamaica capture more value from imports through local production. See the companion story in this edition for JSEZA’s response
(Pages 10 & 11).