Canadian request reverted to the next WTO meeting

The Caribbean-Canada Trade Agreement or Caribbean Initiative known as CARIBCAN is a Canadian government program that was established by the Parliament of Canada in 1986 to promote trade and investment and provide industrial cooperation through the duty-free goods from the countries of the Commonwealth-Caribbean to the Canadian market.

It aims at enhancing the Commonwealth Caribbean’s existing trade and export earnings, improving the trade and economic development prospects of the region, promoting new investment opportunities as well as encouraging enhanced economic integration and cooperation within the region.

As far as Caribbean Initiative expires at the end of the year, Canada intends to extend it.
At a recent meeting of the Council for Trade in Goods of World Trade Organization (WTO), Canada requested a 5-year extension of the waiver for its CARIBCAN. This program enables Canada to grant duty-free treatment to imports from the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Bahamas, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The Council for Trade in Goods of WTO is going to revert to Canadian request at its next meeting.

Both Canada and the BVI and other countries wait for the extension of the agreement as far as it enables the countries improve and develop their economies.