Dionne Rose, Business Reporter

The CARICOM headquarters in Guyana. - FILE

Trade negotiations between Canada and CARICOM have been pushed back once again, this time at the request of the North American nation whose Prime Minister Stephen Harper has called general elections. Canadians go to the polls on October 14.

"We had tentatively, very informally, proposed a date to the Canadians on October 27, but in light of the fact that Canada is going into elections on the 14th and the fact that they have first round negotiations with Panama, October 27 was not a possible date," said Michele Lowe, senior coordinator of hemispheric and bilateral negotiations at the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) in Jamaica.

"So, we are now exploring alternatively dates, which will obviously take us outside of the October 31 date."

The resulting FTA will replace the narrow, goods-only CaribCan agreement, which has expired.

First round of talks

Lowe said the first round of talks with the Canadians is now expected to happen in November on their home turf in Ottawa.

The negotiations will follow the scheduled official signing on October 15 of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiated between Cariforum and the European Union.

Two members of CARICOM, Guyana and Haiti, are refusing to sign the EPA in its present form, but the regional trade body said there is no indication that Guyana would opt out of the Canada talks.

"Guyana has taken a position and that position is in relation to the EPA," said Lowe.

"As far as I am aware there has been no revision in terms of the official mandate that was given to the RNM and the CARICOM Secretariat and the OECS (Organisation of Eastern Carib-bean States) Secretariat in May this year," she said, suggesting that the Caribbean bloc's members were on-board for the Canada talks.

During exploratory discussions with the Canadians in June, both sides had agreed that the scope of the agreement would centre on trade in goods, services and investments.

According to information from the CRNM website, the Canadians had also indicated their intention to use their FTA with Costa Rica as the template for negotiations with CARICOM, with some possible variations.

According to the CRNM, the Canadians expect the agreement to address electronic commerce, competition policy and transparency in government procurement.

Inclusions

CARICOM, on the other hand, has proposed the inclusion of a chapter on 'development' and one dealing with 'innovation'.

The broad outline of the agreement is expected to include: