Canada-Caribbean relations: wherein the special relationship?

Abstract

Abstract Canada and the Commonwealth Caribbean have a long-standing ‘special relationship’ fostered by a common interest in resistance to British imperialism and American economic hegemony. The relationship is based on communalities of both geography and history: for these two British Commonwealth members in the western hemisphere, long-standing trade links, colonial traditions and similar political systems have all encouraged a high per capita concentration of Canadian development assistance to the peoples of the Caribbean. This paper traces the historical development of these trading links from their 18th-century colonial roots through a series of formal bilateral agreements culminating in the one, known as CARIBCAN, ratified in 1986. The recent worldwide expansion of multinational trading pacts, as exemplified by the signing of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, the revival of Caricom and the approach of 1992 in the European Economic Community, has introduced a new element into Canada-Caribbean relations. The USA and the UK are the dominant trading partners of the West Indies yet Canadian interest in the Caribbean is more active than its formal bilateral trade links would suggest. The author concludes that the contemporary economic bases of this relationship are tourism, investment and aid rather than merchandise trade.