World Bank Applauds Canada’s Americas Focus

(Embassy – Lee Berthiaume)

A senior World Bank official last week applauded the government’s decision to make Latin America and the Caribbean a foreign policy priority, describing Canada as “one of the few bilateral countries that has an interest in the Americas.”

Pamela Cox, the bank’s vice-president for the Latin American and Caribbean region, also said the World Bank is not calling on Canada or any other country to slow down on free trade talks with the region despite the fact soaring food and energy costs will slow economic growth there.

“Obviously the bank supports free trade,” she told reporters in a briefing at Chateau Laurier. “We think the benefits are huge.... We think the benefits, especially to Latin America, would be large.”

Ms. Cox was appointed to her position in 2005, but said last week’s visit was her first and was intended as a way to recognize Canada’s new commitment to what she described as the “lost continent.”

Latin America has seen a number of ups and downs since the 1970s, she said, but the region as a whole has enjoyed five per cent growth per year over the past five years, partly due to the adoption of sound fiscal policies in many countries, but particularly thanks to strong commodity prices.

She warned, however, that challenges are on the horizon, particularly for countries in the Caribbean and Central America that import both food and fuel.

“We do see growth continuing, probably going down slightly – about 4.5% per year – and we do see some countries struggling a bit,” she said.

Over the past year, Canada has made the Americas a priority; it is channeling more aid to the hemisphere and has launched a robust campaign to ink free trade agreements with a variety of countries in the hemisphere, including the Caribbean Community, Peru, Colombia and the Dominican Republic.

The goal has been to strengthen democracy and open market systems in a region where Canada has more than $100 billion in investments, primarily in the mining and energy sectors, but where populism and socialist policies, including nationalization of industries and natural resources, are on the rise.

Ms. Cox acknowledged the political divide that exists in the hemisphere, particularly South America, but said: “We need to have everybody around the table, no matter what kind of government they have, no matter what their world view.

“Unless you’re around the table and talking, it’s very hard to address global issues and have stability in the world.... Now what we try to do at the bank level, and I think Canada can also have a role in this, is to keep dialogue open and show examples of how people do things.” Read the complete article.