(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Canada begin preparations for the negotiation of a Trade and Development Agreement on Friday 11 September in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
Senator the Honourable Mariano Browne, Minister of Trade and Industry and Minister in the Ministry of Finance of Trinidad and Tobago, who is the CARICOM Ministerial Spokesman for Bilateral Trade Negotiations, will lead the CARICOM delegation to meet with the Honourable Stockwell Day, Canada’s Minister of International Trade and Minister of the Asia -Pacific Gateway in Port of Spain on Friday. The meeting at the Trinidad Hilton Hotel and Conference Centre is intended to set the tone for and finalise the scope of negotiations as well as arrive at a mutual understanding on the treatment of development in the negotiations.
The Community’s Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) designated the Ministers of Trade of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada and Jamaica to join Mr Browne in the preparatory meeting with the Canadian Minister. It is expected that the negotiations will formally begin later this year.
Currently, trade and economic co-operation relations between CARICOM and Canada are covered under a number of instruments, including the 1979 CARICOM-Canada Trade and Economic Co-operation Agreement and its Protocols, including the 1998 Protocol on Rum; CARIBCAN which grants unilateral duty free access to eligible goods from beneficiary countries in the English-speaking Caribbean up to 2011.
Two-way merchandise trade between CARICOM and Canada averaged more than $700 million (US) over the last ten years with a surplus averaging more than $60 million (US) in favour of the Region.
