Barbados — agent-bev Library

Market status

Licensed. Private operators may trade beverage alcohol subject to activity-specific liquor licences and customs/excise controls. A person may not sell, keep, expose, solicit, receive or take orders for liquor without an appropriate licence. Licence classes include export, wholesale and retail. Excise licensing and Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA) tax administration apply to spirits, beer and other taxable goods.

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Who can trade

Import: Importers need a Customs Registration Number (CRN) for the Single Administrative Document (SAD) used at import or export. Current customs notice requires CRN applicants to show registration with the Tax Administration Management Information System (TAMIS). Alcohol excise applies to taxable goods imported into Barbados; the importer pays or secures the excise before goods are entered for use. Separate alcohol-specific import permit beyond customs registration, excise and liquor licensing: Not yet sourced.

Wholesale and distribution: Any person selling liquor, keeping or exposing it for sale, or soliciting, receiving or taking orders must hold the appropriate licence. Classes include export, wholesale, retail, hotel, restaurant, seasonal, special-occasion, entertainment and members’ club licences. Export and wholesale liquor must be sold in sealed containers and not consumed on the premises. Wholesale dealers and retailers of spirits and wine, distillers, rectifiers, compounders, brewers of beer for sale and manufacturers use the excise licence route; the form states that trading without an excise licence is an offence.

Business-to-business (B2B) online sale: The Electronic Transactions Act recognises offers and acceptances by electronic records. The liquor-licence trigger covers soliciting, receiving and taking orders for sale, so the online channel does not remove the need for the underlying seller licence. Independent marketplace, payment-intermediary and agency treatment: Not yet sourced.

Premises: The Liquor Licensing Authority assesses premises suitability. Licensees remain responsible for laws on health conditions for persons serving food and drink and on building, sanitation and health facilities. Food-premises registration and local premises permissions: Not yet sourced.

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Customs and duty

Tariff headings: Beer: 2203. Beer made from malt. Wine: 2204. Wine of fresh grapes, including fortified wines; certain grape must. Cider: 2206. Other fermented beverages, including cider, perry and mead; mixtures. Spirits: 2208. Undenatured ethyl alcohol below 80% alcohol by volume; spirits, liqueurs and other spirituous beverages.

Import duty: Customs duties are levied on goods imported into Barbados or taken out of bond for consumption at the rates in Part I of the Customs Tariff. Goods are classified under the prescribed tariff classification, and Barbados Customs publishes an online tariff including Chapter 22. The Customs Act also refers to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Common External Tariff and Community-origin treatment. The full commodity code, origin and applicable preference, suspension or exemption determine the result. Exact product-and-origin customs duty and other local charges: Not yet sourced.

Excise: Excise tax applies to taxable goods produced in Barbados and removed from warehouse for local consumption, and to imported taxable goods. The regulations set excise rates by tariff heading and product: beer is split by container and alcoholic-strength bands; wine, grape must, vermouth, other fermented beverages, shandies, cider, perry and mead are separately listed; spirits include ethyl alcohol, rum and tafia, liqueurs, whisky, gin, vodka and mixed spirit beverages. Alcohol content is measured at 20 degrees Celsius and marked as “vol %”.

Territorial and suspension treatment: Customs and excise are national Barbados systems. Approved warehouses and bonds support storage, transfer and export before domestic duty-paid release. Duty-free zones are part of the customs territory but are treated, for import-duty and tax purposes, as outside the territory until clearance or export.

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Labelling

Required language(s): Labels on commodities and pre-packaged products must be in English, though English need not be the only language used. Government guidance states that Barbados National Standard (BNS) 5 Part 1 and BNS 5 Part 2 govern general commodity and pre-packaged-goods labelling, and that information must be clear, prominent and legible.

General mandatory particulars: Product labels declare the common name, responsible manufacturer, packer, distributor, importer, exporter or vendor as applicable, country of origin, metric net contents, main ingredients or components, lot or batch identification, date of minimum durability and storage or use instructions.

Alcohol strength: Excise Tax Regulations require the volume and alcohol content of a taxable good to be expressed as a percentage of total volume at 20 degrees Celsius and the alcoholic content to be marked with “vol %”.

Origin: Country of origin is declared. Where processing in a second country changes the product’s nature, the processing country is declared as origin for labelling.

Mandatory warnings: General alcohol-health or pregnancy warning: Not yet sourced.

Allergens: Allergen-specific declaration rules for alcoholic beverages: Not yet sourced.

Wine particulars: Wine-specific label particulars beyond the general food and commodity rules: Not yet sourced.

Label registration: Prior label approval or label registration for beer, wine, cider or spirits: Not yet sourced.

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Age and sale limits

Legal purchase and supply age: 18. The Liquor Licences Act defines a minor by reference to the age of majority, which is 18. No licensee or other person may sell or supply liquor to a minor. It is a defence to prove reasonable belief that the minor was 18 or older. Persons under 18 may not be employed in connection with the sale or supply of liquor at an establishment.

Sale-hour and channel limits: Export and wholesale licences are sealed-container, no-consumption-on-premises channels. The Liquor Licensing Authority may impose time-of-serving conditions on retail, seasonal or special-occasion licences. Special-occasion licences cover events of no more than 24 hours; seasonal licences cover events over a period not exceeding 3 months. Government guidance describes special-occasion licences for alcohol sale of 24 hours or less and seasonal licences for a 90-day period. General ordinary trading hours beyond individual licence conditions: Not yet sourced.

Regional layers: The Act establishes a national Liquor Licensing Authority. Parish or local restrictions: Not yet sourced.

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Protected names

Protection framework: The Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office (CAIPO) administers the Geographical Indications Act, Cap. 320. A geographical indication (GI) identifies goods from a country, region or locality where a quality, reputation or other characteristic is essentially attributable to origin. The Act protects GIs whether registered or not, prohibits misleading origin indications, and gives specific wine-and-spirit protection against using a GI for products not from the indicated place, even with true-origin, translation or kind, type, style or imitation wording. Registration gives a presumption and the right of use only to qualifying producers in the registered area for products possessing the specified quality, reputation or characteristic.

Rum protection: The Barbados National Standards Institution (BNSI) lists BNS 140:2005 Rum as a compulsory Barbados National Standard. The official standards catalogue identifies the standard for rum; another official catalogue entry describes it as prescribing requirements and methods of sampling and analysis. This is a rum product standard, not an officially sourced Barbados Rum GI.

Rum origin rules: Registered Barbados Rum GI product specification and origin rules under a registered GI: Not yet sourced.

Verified wine, beer and spirit GI examples: Not yet sourced.

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GTIN authority

Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) authority: GS1 is not present in Barbados. GS1 says businesses in a country with no GS1 member organisation may use any GS1 member organisation, and GS1 Global Office may exceptionally allocate prefixes.

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Not yet sourced

Separate alcohol-specific import permit beyond customs registration, excise and liquor licensing; independent marketplace, payment-intermediary and agency treatment; food-premises registration and local premises permissions; exact product-and-origin customs duty and other local charges; general alcohol-health or pregnancy warning; allergen-specific declaration rules for alcoholic beverages; wine-specific label particulars beyond the general food and commodity rules; prior label approval or label registration for beer, wine, cider or spirits; general ordinary trading hours beyond individual licence conditions; parish or local restrictions; registered Barbados Rum GI product specification and origin rules under a registered GI; verified wine, beer and spirit GI examples: Not yet sourced.