The Honourable Helena Guergis, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Trade, today celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service’s presence in the Caribbean.

Mr. E.H.S. Flood of Saint John, New Brunswick, arrived in Bridgetown, Barbados, in 1907 as Canada’s first trade commissioner in the Caribbean. He covered Barbados and much of the rest of the British West Indies: British Guiana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas, and the Leeward and Windward Islands, along with Bermuda.

“Mr. Flood and his successors helped establish a flourishing trade and investment relationship between Canada and the Caribbean,” said Secretary of State Guergis. “Canada’s relationship with the Caribbean marketplace has grown dramatically over the last century, evolving from humble beginnings to having Canadian trade commissioners and locally engaged employees at work across the Caribbean.”

Two-way merchandise trade between Canada and the Caribbean was $3.7 billion in 2006, and Canadian investment in the Caribbean reached an all-time high of $79.7 billion.

Secretary of State Guergis made her remarks on Thursday evening in a keynote address at a trade conference in Bridgetown hosted by the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, the Barbados International Business Association and Invest Barbados.

Secretary of State Guergis is leading a businesswomen’s trade mission to Jamaica and Barbados. The trade mission builds on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to the region in July 2007, when he outlined Canada’s re-engagement in the Americas as a critical, long-term international priority for the government.