Canada, Caricom strengthen trade ties

Canada and Caricom have renewed their commitment to strengthening bilateral and trade relations.

The Caribbean leaders convened at a Canada-Caricom summit in Ottawa last week, where they discussed ways to diversify trade and investment.

The leaders also looked at the expansion of key sectors like financial services, resilient infrastructure, clean technology, information and communications technologies and natural resources management.

In a release, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau underscored the importance of working together to build sustainable economies for everyone, especially as Caribbean countries continue to recover from the covid19 pandemic.

Speaking at the trade and investment roundtable discussion on the final day of the summit, Trudeau announced the expansion of the Commonwealth Caribbean Countries Tariff (CCCT) programme.

CCCT is a non-reciprocal tariff preference programme – established under the 1986 Caribcan agreement – that gives countries in the region duty-free trade access to the Canadian market for the vast majority of goods, including textiles and apparel.

“Canada is helping businesses take advantage of our preferential tariff programmes by simplifying rules of origin and shipping documentation requirements. We are also committed to implementing a new foreign labour program for agriculture and fish processing under the temporary foreign worker programme,” Trudeau said.

In 2022, Canada’s two-way merchandise trade with Caricom countries reached Can$1.8 billion while in 2021, bilateral trade in services reached Can$3.9 billion.

At the summit, Trudeau also announced new funding initiatives to help address shared priorities on climate change and economic growth.

This will include a planned new commitment of Can$58.5 million in partnership with the Caribbean Development Bank to support renewable energy projects and Can$6 million through the Caribbean Climate Smart Fund for resilient energy systems.

“The ties between Canadian and Caribbean communities, businesses, and people run deep. With progress made at this summit, and the new Canada-Caricom strategic partnership, we will continue working together to create jobs, fight climate change, and keep people safe,” he said.