President Ali says
roundtable discussions aim at logistics, human resources

CANADA and the Caribbean Community maintain a steadfast and earnest commitment to the expansion of trade and investment opportunities in the Region.
This is according to President, Dr Irfaan Ali who co-chaired a trade and investment roundtable event at the first Canada-CARICOM summit which is being held in Ottawa, Canada.
According to the Head of State, one of the roundtable’s important outcomes is resetting the trade and investment button and doing so at the highest level, which he said demonstrates to the private sector in Canada and the Caribbean Region that both parties are serious about expanding these opportunities.

“At the highest level, we are demonstrating this commitment and I want to say that this component of the summit by itself tells the seriousness that we are putting towards trade and investment and the role of the private sector in the reset of our relationship and advancement of the opportunities,” President Ali said.
In light of this context, he emphasized the significance of addressing technology transfer and private sector integration, while also ensuring the presence of a policy framework to support trade and investment in both Canada and the Caribbean Region.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also mentioned that a specific cohort of leaders from the business and financial sectors were in attendance at that meeting, emphasizing the significance of trade and investment connections in strengthening the strategic partnership.
Trudeau stated that in the previous year, the merchandise trade between Canada and CARICOM exceeded $1.8 billion, which was attributed to trade programmes offering duty-free access to goods in Caribbean nations.

“We want to grow this trade even more and create more jobs, so I’m happy to announce today that we’ll be expanding duty-free access under the Commonwealth Caribbean countries tariff programme to textiles and apparel and to strengthen the ties between businesses in Canada and the Caribbean workers they employ,” he said.
The Prime Minister further emphasized that the strong interpersonal connections between Canada and the Caribbean create a seamless synergy for conducting business.
He emphasized that through the discovery of new opportunities and the enhancement of current relationships, he aims to create excellent employment prospects and a brighter future for individuals in both Canada and the Caribbean.

Trudeau added, “We are here to stimulate investments that will allow to create possibilities for workers and businesses in Canada, while creating growth for workers and businesses in the Caribbean.”
Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness, emphasized the importance of Canada as a crucial trading partner for the Region, while highlighting the focus areas for trade and investment improvement.

Nevertheless, he indicated that the relationship can be reciprocally fortified as there is a plethora of resources to exploit beyond the current state.
Holness told those gathered that there are some inhibiting factors which the summit and further discussions can help to facilitate greater leverage of the opportunities that exist.
“One of the constraints would be the need for greater development of our logistics, specifically our transportation and I think that’s an area of development attention and the investment interest that we can discuss further within this forum,” Holness remarked.

Further to this, he said that as the economies develop and move towards services and technological innovation on both sides, particularly in CARICOM, greater investments are needed in human resource development focusing on STEM and innovation technology.
He noted that the summit is a great opportunity for Canada and the Caribbean to explore how this can be done as he further noted that with changes to the labour force, managing same is something that attention has to be paid to.

“There is opportunity for even deeper collaboration on how we train and how that is financed and how that is managed so that the need for workforce in Canada versus the need for workforce in our respective Regions can be strategically managed and curated so that there is no fallout,” Holness remarked.
The Jamaica Prime Minister further added that it is important to note that the Caribbean Region is investing heavily in developing its financial institutions and regulations to facilitate trade and investment.

This is being done so that the Region is a strong, institutionally developed Region to accommodate investments from developed countries such as Canada.