New Saint Kitts and Nevis envoy wants to see Canada-CARICOM trade  talks relaunched

In a wide-ranging interview, Saint Kitts and Nevis High  Commissioner Samuel Berridge talks Canada-Caribbean trade,  sustainable development, and visa-free travel to Canada.

Saint Kitts and Nevis’ newest envoy in Ottawa has his eyes set  on paving the way towards a trade agreement between Canada  and Caribbean nations. 

Trade between Canada and Commonwealth Caribbean countries  is governed by the Caribbean-Canada Trade Agreement  (CARIBCAN), which is a non-reciprocal pact that requires World  Trade Organization approval and through which Caribbean  countries are able to export certain items to Canada without  duties. 

“CARIBCAN is very limited in scope and it’s just a number of  items,” Saint Kitts and Nevis High Commissioner Samuel  Berridge told The Hill Times during a March 14 interview at his  country’s Sandy Hill chancery. “We would like to see a free trade  agreement; we need to have that discussion.” 

“The Caribbean gave the City of Toronto Caribana. The value of  that is exponential—it’s significant,” he said, but remarked  that if someone from the Caribbean wants to participate, they  need a visa. 

“Entire bands can come from Barbados, they can come from  Sant Kitts and Nevis, they can come from Saint Lucia,” he said.  “They have to eat and they have to stay somewhere, so they have  to spend money. I would like to see Caribana replicated in other  provinces. Just imagine Caribana in Vancouver, Caribana in  Calgary, Caribana in Saskatchewan.” 

Berridge arrived in Ottawa in February to begin his first head of  mission posting. Previously, he was a trade policy and foreign  service officer in the Saint Kitts and Nevis foreign ministry for  the past two decades, which included a posting at the United 

Nations, where he focused on sustainable development and  small island developing states.  

A long-held complaint from Basseterre has been the imposition  of a visa requirement on Kittitian and Nevisian visitors to  Canada since 2014. Last year, those concerns were softened as  Saint Kitts and Nevis was one of 13 countries to which Canada  granted visa-free travel. As part of the electronic travel  authorization (eTA) regime, those who have had a Canadian visa  in the past 10 years, or those who hold a valid United States non 

resident visa can enter Canada without the need of visa  approval. The eTA can be applied for online for a small fee,  whereas hopeful Kittitian and Nevisian travellers have to apply  for a visa at Canada’s High Commission in Trinidad and Tobago.

Berridge said the change has opened “portals” for Saint Kitts  and Nevis, but now they want to see the program extended.  Currently, Kittitian and Nevisian travellers can only enter  Canada with an eTA if they are landing at a Canadian airport, and  not through a land border crossing. 

“We have some work to do sensitizing our people to that aspect  of it, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction,” he said.  “And we are going to continue the dialogue. … We would like to  certainly continue the discussion to have the full visa waiver 

instituted. It will be helpful for us in terms of people-to-people  movement.” 

With the prospect of ruinous annual hurricanes hitting the  Caribbean country, Berridge highlighted co-operation on  sustainable development to work towards solutions for climate  change-related natural disasters, remarking that development  assistance should not be solely based on GDP per capita, but also  a country’s vulnerability.  

“We can have one hurricane, and it can take us back 10 years. It  can erode [and] erase 10 years of development,” he said. “We  cannot be invulnerable. We are inherently vulnerable. Every  year hurricanes come off the coast of Africa and they line up. If  we miss one, another one will catch us. Sometimes two catch us  in one year.” 

In 1998, Hurricane Georges caused nearly $500-million in  damages to the two-island nation with a population of a little  more than 50,000 people. 

Berridge said solutions are being pursued to make natural  disasters less scathing, remarking that technology is being  increasingly used to build “smart homes” that have led to far  less destruction during hurricane season.

“When I was growing up, every year we got the same hurricanes,  but every year we lost our roof,” he said, remarking that now  roofs are increasingly being reinforced so they won’t be blown  off in a storm. 

“We learned from that. We cannot change the outside  circumstances, but we can change how we react to that,” he  said. 

nmoss@hilltimes.com 

The Hill Times 

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