In the scheme of things, when it comes to international trade, Canada is among the least important trading partners. But, Belize once had a thriving trade relationship with its northern neighbour prior to and just after its independence.
Over the last couple decades, however, development aid coming from the north has lessened. And so the recent efforts at negotiating a trade agreement with Canada along with Caricom, have not generated much interest, neither here nor in the Caribbean.
The ministry of foreign trade has been trying to change that perception, and consultations were held today at the Chamber of Commerce's conference room to review the draft Caricom texts on market access in goods and services, including areas of concern for Belize.
The hope is that Belize and other Caricom nations can agree on a joint NAFTA style trade arrangement with Canada, but today that was met with mixed emotions from the private sector stakeholders.
Acting Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Orla Coleman says from the looks of things, striking an agreement with Canada doesn't look like its going to happen anytime soon.
Orla Coleman, Acting Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade
"Caricom has said we want this arrangement to be a trade and development emphasis on development. Canada has said that we don't have a mandate to do that, so what heads did in July was to agree to have a technical working group on labor and environment. I caution of course that this is not a negotiating group on labor and environment; it's simply a working group. In other words where they continue to explore where there could be tradeoffs. But it is quite clear to the region that if any tradeoffs are to happen it would have to include our interest in seeking to have development reflected in the arrangement and before you can actually decide what to include or what not to include you need to at least get a clear view of what are all the issues on the table and therefore then because heads mandated that in July, we have yet to get the ministries of labor and environment involve in developing a position for Belize, this position intern will be feed into the regional preparations for discussions for Canada."
Jim McFadzean
"Where is Canada on the ladder in terms of trading partners with Belize? Are they in the top 5?"
Orla Coleman
"No, they maybe in the top bottom. We have very minimal trade with Canada, in fact you will see that in 2008 it was a little over BZ$5 million exports going in to Canada and around BZ$12 million coming in to Belize. So really it's very small and I think too that this is one of the issues that has plague these set of negotiations from the start, in other words if we don't have that trade interest, if we have so much access into Canada already why really are we negotiating with Canada. Well it has a political dimension to it and heads went ahead and said for whatever reason let's move forward with Canada. Unfortunately to a large extent we feel that it is not being trickle down at the level because we keep having consultations and some private sector will be fully onboard with it while with others it's a complete waste of time and then of course its reflected in the turn out once its Canada you don't see that interest from the private sector."
A wide range of areas were discussed at today's consultations, including Agriculture, Sanitary and Phytosanitary issues, Technical Barriers to Trade, Customs Procedures, Energy, Financial Services and Investment and a host of others.
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