by RICKEY SINGH

CANADA'S prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to announce a new aid and trade strategy for the Caribbean and Latin America today.

The 48-year-old Prime Minister, who heads an 18-month-old administration of Canada's Conservative Party, is scheduled to have a full working day on the third-stop of a whirlwind five-day four-nation tour visit that started in Colombia on Sunday. It ends in Haiti where Harper is scheduled to arrive after leaving Barbados.

While having a specific bilateral focus on Canada-Barbados relations of about 40 years since 1967, Prime Minister Harper is lilkely to disclose the framework of his government's proposed new "strategy" in trade and economic relations when he meets with Prime Minister Owen Arthur and some other CARICOM leaders for an informal meeting.

The CARICOM Secretariat was not in a position up to late Tuesday afternoon to provide the names of Heads of Government likely to participate in the meeting with Prime Minister Harper, except to signal that it was not the intention to have a "full house" for the occasion.

The certain "no shows" would include Prime Ministers Portia Simpson-Miller of Jamaica and Said Musa of Belize as well as the President of Suriname, Runoldo Venetiaan.

The DAILY NATION was reliably informed that the Harper administration had sent some "early signals" that the Barbados visit would provide the opportunity to announce a few "significant initiatives" for future trade and economic relations for CARICOM with which Canada has a long history of "strong friendship ties and non-involvement in domestic affairs".

One such initiative to which CARICOM is looking forward is a new multilateral agreement that could replace the soon-to-be-expired CaribCan – Canada's limited trade version of the United States-initiated Caribbean Basin Inititive (CBI) which is to expire in 2008.

Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur, who is currently CARICOM's chairman, and head of a Mobilisation Task Force on capitalisation for the proposed CARICOM Development Fund, had indicated at the recent 28th annual conference of the Community leaders that he had great expectations for Prime Minister Harper's visit.

Canada, along with other members of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), including the People's Republic of China, had indicated a keen interest in being a contributor to the CDF once the modalities of its operations and management were concluded.

Expectations from the meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister include the announcement of plans for launching negotiations for "a comprehensive" free trade agreement that would broaden and deepen Canada-CARICOM relations.