Editorial | Canada-CARICOM partnership

When Caribbean Community (CARICOM) heads of government meet for their in-person summit next month, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, should be their special guest.

And Mr Carney’s presence should be more than symbolic. It should be a serious working meeting at which the Canadians and CARICOM seek to rejuvenate bilateral trade, including, possibly, reviving negotiations on a free trade agreement, which had been stalled since 2014, as well as give real meaning to the strategic partnership agreement that Mr Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, signed with the community in 2023.

Which means that CARICOM should already be at work determining what the region wants from any partnership with Canada, and what precisely the region brings to the table – as this newspaper suggested after Mr Carney’s election and he headed to Europe, rather than next door to Washington, as was customary for Canadian PMs, for his first trip abroad.

Mr Carney’s choice of France and Britain for his first visits, instead of engaging in obsequious flattery of Donald Trump at the White House, was a significant strategic signal of his intended response to the American president’s capricious use of US power in the world and Mr Trump’s abandonment of the existing international order.

Mr Carney expanded on his concepts with great clarity in Davos last week, calling – in the face of Mr Trump’s move to impose a new global order based on Greater Power politics – on the world’s middle powers, like Canada, to “act together”.

“[B]ecause if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” Mr Carney said.

Added the Canadian prime minister: “...When we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what’s offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating.

“This is not sovereignty. It’s the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination.”

DEEPLY FLAWED

Small, and relatively poor countries, like those that comprise CARICOM, recognised that the global order was deeply flawed. They could, however, count on some protection within it when participants played mostly by the rules.

Now, they are fully exposed and vulnerable, exemplified by Mr Trump’s assertion of a more muscular form of the Monroe Doctrine in the Americas.

A national security strategy document issued by the White House in December made clear Washington’s stance that the “United States must be preeminent in the Western Hemisphere as a condition of our security and prosperity — a condition that allows us to assert ourselves confidently where and when we need to in the region”.

“The terms of our alliances, and the terms upon which we provide any kind of aid, must be contingent on winding down adversarial outside influence — from control of military installations, ports, and key infrastructure to the purchase of strategic assets broadly defined,” it added.

Constant with Mr Carney’s unimpeachable logic at Davos, the small states of CARICOM, if they act individually, have almost no room with which to manoeuvre in dealing with a greater power like the United States. The collective voice of CARICOM has greater currency, yet carries very limited weight.

While not seeking to alienate or overtly antagonise the United States, CARICOM must seek to broaden its global partnerships – in the Americas, Africa, Asia, including the Middle East – so as to provide itself with greater economic freedom, and therefore insulation, in dealing with Great Powers.

Mr Carney’s strategic survival framework for middle powers is a concept upon which CARICOM should seek to piggyback, notwithstanding that he made no offer of invitation to developing countries.

However, CARICOM is not without value to Canada in this potential project, not least the numbers it brings and, therefore, the possibilities for amplification. The community has 14 independent members.

Moreover, Canada and CARICOM, most of whose members are former British colonies, share similar values. Like the majority of CARICOM members, Canada is a Westminster-style parliamentary democracy, as well as a member of the Commonwealth.

PROSPECTS

While the regional economies are small, there are prospects for an increase in trade and other forms of economic cooperation, which isn’t to be scorned or disdained in the current environment where every buck counts.

Although they have retreated significantly in recent decades Mr Carney, a former central banker, is well aware that Canadian commercial banks were once the dominant players in English-speaking Caribbean markets. Canada has more than a toehold upon which to build in the provision of services.

On visible trade, for 40 years Canada has provided, via the Caribbean pact, duty-free access to exports from the region. That arrangement has been extended until 2033.

However, for myriad reasons, only a small portion of Caribcan exports to Canada fall within the Caribbean framework, although most of it is duty-free, primarily under other designations. Critically, trade between Canada and CARICOM (C$1.47 billion in 2023) has largely declined in recent years, reflecting fall-offs in imports and exports on both sides. Caribbean exports to Canada and mostly low value-added products.

Canadian exporters would no doubt wish to increase the C$952 million (C$1.114 billion in 2022) in goods and C$1.32 billion in services they sold the region in 2023, reversing some of the inroads made by other countries in Caribbean markets.

There is a basis for, and a foundation upon which, Canada and CARICOM can, and should, give real life to a strategic partnership.