The National Post reports today that, “As U.S. President Barack Obama and Venezuela’s leftist leader Hugo Chavez stole the spotlight with their unexpected rapprochement at the Summit of the Americas, Prime Minister Stephen Harper pushed Canada’s free trade ambitions…”
FTA WITH CARICOM
“On the second day of the 34-country summit, Harper held his first meeting with the full membership of CARICOM, the organization of 15 Caribbean countries that the prime minister dearly wants to add to Canada’s growing portfolio of free-trade agreements. A Harper aide said ‘significant progress’ was made at establishing a mandate to begin formal negotiations on a possible agreement with the Caribbean countries, but a breakthrough was not expected this weekend.”
HARPER SEEKS MORE BILATERAL FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS
“(Harper) also told (his fellow leaders at Saturday morning’s in-camera session) Canada has forged lucrative free-trade deals in recent decades with the U.S., Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, Chile, Peru and Colombia. And Harper told them Canada was negotiating with Panama, and he shared his government’s ambitions to begin formal talks on deals with the Caribbean, as well as the Central American countries of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala.”
NO FTAA
“Harper is pursuing bilaterals deals, in part because the dream of hemisphere wide free trade died in a fire of leftist protest led by Chavez during the 2005 summit.”
The full article is at http://www.nationalpost.com/m/story.html?id=1510928&s=Home
