1. OFFICE OF TRADE NEGOTIATIONS
Press Release
2nd Floor, PCJ Building 1st Floor, Speedbird House
36 Trafalgar Road Independence Square
Kingston 5, JAMAICA Bridgetown, BARBADOS
OTN Press/News Releases are available on the OTN’s website at www.crnm.org
Contact:
Marsha Drakes, Tel: (246) 430-1678
marsha.drakes@crnm.org
For Immediate Release: No. 02/2011
April 13, 2011
STATEMENT
BY THE
OTN DIRECTOR GENERAL
ON THE
THIRD ROUND OF NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA
4-8 APRIL, 2011
BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS – Over the past week, in Ottawa, Canada, the Region engaged in
the third Round of trade negotiations to develop a Trade and Development Agreement with
Canada.
In previous Rounds, both Sides had engaged in fruitful preliminary exchanges which led to
greater clarity on positions and perspectives on a number of issues on the negotiating
agenda. In addition, Canada had shared with us its textual proposals on a range of
negotiating subject areas. These were very helpful to CARICOM in its own regional
consultations which have been taking place over the past several months and have been
aimed at finalizing our initial text proposals in accordance with the Region’s overall
mandate.

2. During the third Round, therefore, the Region was able to present textual proposals in a
number of subject areas, which included Safeguards; Agriculture and Fisheries; Alcoholic
Beverages; Technical Barriers to Trade; Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS);
Facilitation of Business Persons; Institutional Issues; Dispute Avoidance and Dispute
Settlement; Development Cooperation. Framework texts on Trade in Services and
Investment were also presented. CARICOM also had an opportunity to present its broad
approaches in a number of sectors of particular importance, such as Tourism, Culture, ICT,
Telecoms, E-Commerce, and Energy Services.
The joint discussions facilitated explanation and clarification of the various proposals,
allowing both Sides to identify areas of possible convergence and divergence. Canada also
signalled that CARICOM’s specific proposals and the ensuing discussions provided
important inputs for Canada’s ongoing internal consultations.
Overall, CARICOM’s proposals reflect the careful and detailed work the Region has been
undertaking to bring to life CARICOM’s trade interests with its third, largest, trading
partner. As much specificity as possible was expressed in order to reflect not only the
Region’s offensive and defensive interests but also its trade-related development priorities.
Further, CARICOM’s texts clearly demonstrated the Region’s approach to the treatment of
development through a) the elaboration of a separate chapter on Development Cooperation
focussing on broad principles, and b) the inclusion of specific provisions on cooperation
designed to develop and support aspects of the Region’s trade related capacity across all
subject areas under negotiation. The level of specificity which informed these proposals was
welcomed by Canada, which emphasized their usefulness for taking the negotiations
forward.
At the same time, we were not able to complete our preliminary exchanges on some of the
text proposals. As a result, both Sides recognised the need to reconvene the third Round in
order to complete this process. This will take place at a mutually agreed time and is likely to
be held using available technology such as video conferencing.
CARICOM and Canada were also able to identify a detailed programme of work which will
guide our preparations for a fourth Round which is to be held in the Caribbean.
The CARICOM delegation was very warmly received by its Canadian counterparts and was
ably supported by representatives from Member States, as well as CARICOM High
Commissioners and their staff based in Ottawa.
****