CBERA

The Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA) is the foundational statute of the Caribbean Basin Initiative, enacted in 1983 (Pub. L. 98-67) and codified at 19 U.S.C. §§ 2701-2707. CBERA provides duty-free treatment for eligible articles imported into the U.S. from designated Caribbean and Central American beneficiary countries.

Eligibility requirements:

1. The article must be the growth, product, or manufacture of a designated beneficiary country
2. The article must be imported directly from the beneficiary country into the U.S.
3. At least 35% of the appraised value must be local value-added (the sum of cost of materials produced in the beneficiary country plus direct costs of processing) — at least 15 percentage points must come from a CBERA country, with up to 20 percentage points permitted from U.S.-origin materials
4. The article must undergo a substantial transformation in the beneficiary country

Excluded products. Like GSP, CBERA originally excluded textiles, apparel, footwear, leather goods, watches, and certain other sensitive categories. Many of these gaps were filled by the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) in 2000, particularly for apparel.

Status. CBERA is a permanent program — unlike GSP, AGOA, and CBTPA, it does not have an expiration date. As more Caribbean Basin countries join CAFTA-DR, CBERA's practical scope has narrowed but the statute remains in force.

Claims use the "E" or "E*" Special Program Indicator.