By Sir Ronald Sanders

A most remarkable conference on strengthening Canada’s relationship with the Caribbean took place on May 23. It was remarkable for several reasons not least because it was initiated not by the Caribbean but by an influential group of Canadians chaired by former Prime Minister Joe Clark.

The group of current and former high level Canadian officials invited several representatives of Caribbean governments, agencies, academia and the private sector to join them in examining the Caribbean-Canada relationship.

I was privileged to be amongst the Caribbean persons at the meeting which included Barbados Foreign Minister Dame Billie Miller and Ambassador Richard Bernal the Head of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery.

As Joe Clark put it, “There was once a natural almost reflective relationship of support between Canada and the Caribbean. It has weakened. Something has gone wrong and needs to be put right.”

No one disputed that observation, and all were conscious that there has not been a full fledged meeting between the Prime Minister of Canada and Caribbean Heads of Government since 2001.

These Heads of Government meeting have been important in themselves dating back to the time of Pierre Trudeau in Canada and Errol Barrow, Michael Manley and Eric Williams. The personal relationship developed by the Heads of Government made support for each other’s countries easier in hemispheric and international fora.

Drawing on their common experience as part of the former British Empire and a host of common traditions and values, Canadian and Caribbean government representatives found themselves to be natural allies.

This redounded to their mutual benefit. It has been very seldom that Canada’s positions or its candidates for posts in the international system have not found immediate backing from the Caribbean.

And, Canada has strongly supported Caribbean’s aspirations in the international community. This is exemplified by the fact that Canada represents the Caribbean on the Boards of the IMF and World Bank and has advanced Caribbean causes when the necessity has arisen.

Canada has also argued Caribbean positions in multilateral organisations, such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) where the Caribbean has no voice. It certainly did so over the OECD’s Harmful Tax Competition Initiative‚ to inveigh a more reasonable approach than the black listing of countries.

The Caribbean is also a significant area of investment for Canadian companies, particularly in financial services. As was pointed out at the May 23 meeting, the Bank of Nova Scotia was established in Jamaica before it was set up in Toronto.

Canadian investment in the Caribbean earns the Canadian economy a great deal of revenue, provides thousands of jobs for Canadians, and facilitates Canadian business in other parts of the world.

The Caribbean also provides good quality immigrants to Canada whose low birth rate and older population requires people in the job market to contribute to the social security scheme. Many of the immigrants to Canada from Caricom countries are persons with a high-level of education and training.

It is clearly in the interest of both Canada and Caricom countries to revitalise and reinvigorate their relationship in their mutual interest.

So what can be done? The meeting came up with a number of ideas, among which is a new trade and investment agreement between Canada and the Caribbean that could serve as a model for relations between a big country and a group of smaller ones.

Caribcan, the existing trade agreement between Canada and the Caribbean, was essentially a Canadian offer to the Caribbean to allow duty-free entry of certain goods to the Canadian market, but it excluded products of vital interest to the Caribbean. A new trade arrangement should include services as well as a wider range of goods, but it should also encompass and encourage private investment, debt relief as long as the proceeds of such relief is tied to infrastructural development.

Attention was also paid to the importance of developing the human resources of the Caribbean to satisfy the employment needs of economies which are adjusting to a competitive world economic order.

At the same time, it was recognised that skilled labour is highly mobile and that Canada and other OECD countries are the beneficiaries of the brain drain from the Caribbean. Nonetheless, Canada could help the Caribbean to overhaul and modernise its formal education system to make schooling more attractive and to stem the tide of under achievement particularly by boys.

On the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) which Caricom countries are seeking to establish both to deepen their internal markets and strengthen their external negotiating capacity, it was felt that Canada could help Caricom countries to develop a Regional Health Insurance Scheme.

Such a scheme would facilitate the movement of people between Caricom States without placing a burden on national health services—a source of resentment by local communities of immigrants from neighbouring States.

And, at the bottom line, the meeting held the strong view that it was essential to establish a structured relationship between Canada and the Caribbean and not to rely only on the sentiment of the historical relationship.

The recent neglect of the relationship has shown that the attention of governments is distracted by both domestic and international events that require urgent attention. But, if a structure is in place with a set timetable and a programme of work, neglect is less likely.

What will come of the meeting in Canada itself and in Canadian government circles is left to be seen. But, it is extremely encouraging that an influential group of high level Canadians recognise the mutually beneficial economic and political relationship between Canada and the Caribbean and is eager to keep it alive.

Should this happen, it would be good not only for Canada and the Caribbean but also for what they could do together in the Commonwealth, the Organisation of American States and the World Trade Organisation to promote world stability based on practical and helpful trade, investment and cooperation agreements.

(The writer is a business executive and former Caribbean diplomat who publishes widely on small states in the global community)

Responses to: ronaldsanders29@hotmail.com