Latest update January 6th, 2025 4:00 AM
Canada sends new High Commissioner
… plugs economic development, support for low carbon development
The new Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana, Francois Montour, says that he will focus on economic development cooperation with Guyana through the regional integration bloc CARICOM.
The 15-member nation CARICOM is slated to begin negotiations for a trade and development agreement with Canada in early November.
New Canadian High Commissioner Francois Montour
Montour yesterday presented his credentials as Canada’s new High Commissioner to Acting President Samuel Hinds. Others at the ceremony were acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Manzoor Nadir and Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Elisabeth Harper.
Apart from trade and economic cooperation, Montour said that he will also be looking closely at Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy. Speaking just after being accredited at the Office of the President, Montour called the strategy “interesting” and said Canada would work with Guyana so the strategy could become a model for others to follow.
But it is trade and economic cooperation that stands at the helm of relations between Canada and Guyana, and the rest of the Caribbean. Two-way merchandise trade between CARICOM and Canada averaged more than US$700 million over the last ten years with a surplus averaging more than US$60 million in favour of the region.
Currently, trade and economic relations between CARICOM and Canada are covered under a number of instruments, including the 1979 CARICOM-Canada Trade and Economic Co-operation Agreement and its Protocols, including the 1998 Protocol on Rum; CARIBCAN which grants unilateral duty free access to eligible goods from beneficiary countries in the English-speaking Caribbean up to 2011.
Montour said that Guyana and Canada have enjoyed a history of friendly economic cooperation, and added that this cooperation in the future would be addressed in the context of the free trade agreement CARICOM and Canada are trying to hammer out.
Free trade negotiations between Canada and the nations of CARICOM were launched back in 2007 by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the push for such an agreement was driven by his Government’s commitment to revive and expand Canadian political and economic engagement in the region.
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