Co-Chairman Mr. Michael Kergin
Assistant Deputy Minister
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates
Staff of the Secretariat
Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you all to this the Ninth Meeting of the CARICOM-Canada Joint Trade and Economic Committee. Mr. Chairman, while I do extend a special word of welcome to the Representative of Suriname for whom we expect the final steps will shortly be taken to complete its membership of this body, it is for those of you, our own representatives and our partners and friends from CANADA to whom we extend the warmest welcome, knowing that for you, at this time of year anything warm must be a source of great comfort. From that point of view we could not have chosen a more opportune time for holding this meeting in the Caribbean. What with El Nino’s scorching days, test cricket and Carnival all around, you cannot lack for warmth in the Region at any time. Please do enjoy it.
Mr. Co-chairman, it was some 15 months ago that we met in Ottawa for the Eighth Joint Trade and Economic Committee Meeting. The temperature was not as warm as it is here today but the friendship, the cordiality and the hospitality that you extended to us was equal to that which we have enjoyed anywhere. We wish to place on record here our appreciation for that experience.
Equally, the progress we jointly achieved on that occasion, dealing with the Free Trade Area of the Americas, CARIBCAN, market access for our products, I was told I must expressly mention rum, issues relating to the Common External Tariff, to international tourism and travel, crime, drugs and terrorism, and a number of political issues, all served to confirm if that was necessary, the value of the relationship to both sides. Subsequent developments dealing with some of these issues, for example the question of landmines, candidatures for major international positions and Haiti, have justified our faith in this relationship. That many of those issues appear on our Agenda today is more for finalisation than for repetition.
The quality of cooperation which we enjoy between Canada and CARICOM owes much to the quality of relationship between the Heads of Government of the countries involved. That those Heads of Government would have found it useful to meet three times in the last three years speaks volumes of the relationship and serves to anchor the institutional arrangements which the JTEC represents.
We of the Secretariat also cannot afford to miss this opportunity to convey our own special appreciation for this relationship which for us is essentially embodied in the CARICOM Regional Institutional Strengthening Project (CRISP). Designed as it is to render strategic technical and financial assistance in making this organisation more efficient and effective in dealing with the Caribbean Community’s development, it has brought the quality and standard we have come to expect from the “made in Canada” seal, with a touch of Caribbean flavour of course.
We all therefore greatly treasure this relationship, the Caribbean Community, its peoples and its Institutions.
In welcoming you therefore to this Ninth Meeting of the Joint CARICOM/Canada Trade and Economic Committee Meeting, we do so not with mere diplomatic niceties but with “genuine” warmth and friendship which continues to make this relationship “special – very special”.
With these few words, I invite you Mr. Co-Chairman to address us.
