Press release 219/2006
(20 November 2006)

Your Excellency Mr. Charles Court
Deputy Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community
Assistant Secretaries-General
Other Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat
Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen

Today I am deeply honoured to welcome His Excellency Charles Court and to receive the Credentials accrediting him as Canada’s Plenipotentiary Representative to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

I welcome you High Commissioner, not just to the Secretariat, but to the entire Caribbean Community.

I do so against the backdrop of a long history of a close and mutually beneficial relationship between your country and most of the Member States of the Caribbean Community. From the early years of the establishment of the plantation economies of the Caribbean - when Canadian flour and codfish and Caribbean rum featured prominently in the trade relations between our two regions, to the later years of Canadian financial and other investments in the Region and Caribbean out- migration to Canada - our countries have developed a special relationship based on shared values, common institutions, similar objectives, and human inter-relationships. It is that background which today forms the foundation for the very step we are about to take today – one which we have undertaken with pleasure on many occasions before with your distinguished predecessors.

No doubt the relationship between Canada and the Caribbean region has been a special one. We need however, to guard against the many changes in the new global environment, impacting negatively on the very nature and quality of that relationship. Excellency, your accreditation to the Caribbean Community as your country’s Plenipotentiary Representative, will no doubt place a special responsibility on your shoulders in that regard. We at the CARICOM Secretariat stand ever ready to work closely with you, in the discharge of that responsibility for which, on behalf of the Caribbean Community, we too are charged.

Allow me, therefore, in this regard, to express our appreciation for the action taken by Canada to secure a WTO waiver for the extension of the historical CARIBCAN – Canada/CARICOM Trade Agreement - beyond December 2006. We of the Caribbean Community, will obviously support this initiative, geared as it is, to ensuring the continuation of the preferential market access we enjoy in the Canadian market. We hope that all CARICOM Member States will be eligible to benefit from such an extension.

Further to this, we are conscious of the need to bring our trade arrangements in line with the changes in the new global trading environment, and look forward to the readiness on both sides to commence negotiations for a mutually beneficial, 21st century agreement, covering trade in goods, services, and investments, between Canada and the Caribbean Community including the Single Market and Economy.

While proceeding to that end, permit me to convey through you to your government, our urgent and repeated plea, in relation to that most historical of products which has been an indispensable part of our earlier trade relations and which no doubt brought much warmth to Canadians throughout its cold winters. I refer of course to rum. Excellency, we have made representation to Canada for amendments to recent legislation your country has adopted, seeking to have CARICOM rum exported to Canada accorded similar treatment to spirits produced in other countries mentioned in the legislation. We look forward to an early and favourable resolution to this matter, in the context of current trade arrangements, since rum exports represent a significant source of foreign exchange earnings for our Region.

Technical assistance from Canada continues to be critical to the Region’s development efforts. We therefore look forward to Canada’s continued support of our efforts toward deepening the integration movement, particularly through support for the establishment and functioning of the CSME, specifically for regional capacity building and institutional strengthening. In this regard, we welcome the CARICOM Capacity Development Programme (CCDP) financed by Canada, as we do the support in the area of regional human and social development, which places particular emphasis on the empowerment of youth and women and lends great support to the Pan-Caribbean Partnership HIV/AIDS (PANCAP).

Excellency, in the context of building our Single Economy, we intend to seek Canada’s support for the establishment and functioning of the CARICOM Development Fund, a facility which is intended to provide financial and technical assistance to our disadvantaged countries, regions, and sectors in support of the Region’s economic transformation efforts.

Finally, Excellency CARICOM appreciates Canada’s collaboration in the international effort to ensure transparent elections in Haiti. You have done so in the presidential elections, and we look forward to your support in the ensuing elections in December. CARICOM Member States, including Haiti, have also made the commitment to facilitate that country’s re-integration into the Community, and we look forward to continued collaboration with Canada, in particular for the opening of the CARICOM Representation Office in Haiti.

I could not close Excellency, without making mention of Canada’s current assistance in the area of security. We are deeply appreciative of Canada’s support for the successful hosting of the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Last week, I was pleased to receive an update in this regard during a courtesy call I made on your country’s Representative in Port-of-Spain.

Beyond these specific initiatives, Excellency, we look forward to the expression of our shared vision through a more integrated and harmonious approach by CARICOM and Canada in the hemispheric and international arenas, particularly in the United Nations, the Commonwealth and the Organisation of American States.

It is in this broader spirit that this year has seen CARICOM and Canada meet at ministerial level and at the level of officials, Ambassadors and High Commissioners. Our Foreign Ministers met in the margins of the OAS General Assembly in the Dominican Republic in June, and recently CARICOM High Commissioners met with the Canadian Foreign Minister, Honourable Peter Mackay. In Caracas, our Ambassadors also engaged with Canadian Representatives. And in addition, we in the CARICOM Secretariat deliberated in this very room with a visiting Canadian Policy Review Group and participated in an exchange of views on Canada-CARICOM relations in Washington. It is expected that much consultation and dialogue will continue the engagement between our two sides to ensure that the policy directions of Canada and CARICOM are mutually understood.

Excellency, to conclude, we have received and accepted the assurances given by Canada regarding the value and continuation of our special relationship. We of the CARICOM Secretariat, take this opportunity to convey to you CARICOM’s similar assurances in that regard. We therefore look forward most importantly, to a re-energised relationship between the people of Canada and the people of the Caribbean Community.

Excellency, your accreditation here as the Plenipotentiary Representative of Canada to the Caribbean Community at this time, is therefore of great significance and is profoundly welcome, as it is certain to continue to enhance this historical special relationship between CARICOM and Canada. We at the CARICOM Secretariat therefore anticipate and look forward to heightened collaboration with you as together, we contribute to and facilitate this re-invigorated special Canada-CARICOM relationship. A major task therefore lies ahead of us.

I therefore accept your letters of credence with pleasure, and extend to you Excellency my best wishes for a successful and mutually rewarding tour of duty.