It had been apparent long before 1960 that traditional agricultural exports on their own could not sustain the long-run economic development of the Caribbean. The debates inside and outside the region had therefore focused on what should take their place. British and French colonies had tended to favour nontraditional agricultural exports, with some concessions to food security through import substitution in foodstuffs. Dutch dependencies from the 1920s onwards had put their faith in oil refining and non-oil minerals. From the 1940s, the scope for manufactured exports from the US dependencies had been widely accepted if the fiscal regime could be made sufficiently attractive.

It had therefore been left at first to the three independent countries – Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti – to make the case for import-substituting industrialization (ISI). These countries were more familiar with what had been happening in mainland Latin America since the Great Depression and were prepared to implement part of the inward-looking development strategy, but not at the expense of export agriculture. Their experience had shown that ISI did have a role in the Caribbean, even if the cost in terms of economic efficiency was high.