Carney calls for expanded trade with Caribbean at Commonwealth leaders meeting

ST JOHN’S — Canada and the Caribbean have barely begun to realize what’s possible in their trading relationship, Prime Minister Mark Carney told a working breakfast of Commonwealth leaders Tuesday.

“There’s more than a million people in Canada who trace their roots back to the region,” Carney told the assembled leaders before attending the opening of the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda.

“There is growing trade, $4 billion a year more broadly … It scratches the surface of what’s possible.”

Carney started the day by sitting down with Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne, who told Carney at the start of their meeting that Canada “as a middle power is very influential in the Commonwealth globally.”

“And as we have discussions to make the Commonwealth more consequential, your contribution will be extremely valuable,” he added.

Carney saluted Browne’s leadership on the Commonwealth meeting, calling it “an extraordinarily important meeting at a crucial time.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand joined Carney at the working breakfast, where the prime minister gave each of the assembled Caribbean leaders a bottle of maple syrup with his own brand on it.

Heads of state and foreign ministers from Antigua, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago were in attendance, along with the secretary-general of CARICOM, an intergovernmental organization representing Caribbean nations.

“We all know how much the world has changed. We’re all responding to it. We all know that the best response is to build out the close ties of friendship,” Carney said in his opening remarks at the breakfast.

The Prime Minister’s Office said in a background document ahead of the breakfast meeting that the leaders would discuss “expanding trade and investment opportunities, opening new markets, strengthening supply chains, and promoting sustainable economic growth.”

It said they also would talk about regional security and climate change, which it noted “remains one of the most pressing challenges facing Caribbean countries,” especially small island developing states.

Carney is spending one day in Antigua, with a full itinerary that includes other bilateral meetings and executive sessions.

Ahead of Carney’s trip, Antigua’s high commissioner to Canada said he hopes that Canada’s relationship with the Caribbean, which used to be closer, can now be rebuilt.

Ronald Sanders told The Canadian Press “Canada needs to pay a little more attention to the Caribbean,” adding Carney is likely to find common ground with other leaders during his visit.

The Prime Minister’s Office said in a readout after Carney’s meeting with Browne that the two “discussed opportunities to strengthen the Canada-Antigua and Barbuda partnership and deepen co-operation on shared interests, including trade and investment, energy, climate resilience, youth, tourism, people to people ties and the priorities of small island developing states.”

Carney attended a lunch hosted by King Charles for new heads of government in the Commonwealth. This meeting is held every second year and is the first since Carney took office in March 2025.

The Prime Minister’s Office said in a separate document the lunch was an opportunity for Carney “to engage informally with the King and fellow Commonwealth leaders.”

It said the event was also meant to “reaffirm a shared commitment to democracy, the rule of law, sustainable development, and international co-operation.”

The leaders of Gabon, Ghana, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and the U.K. were also expected to attend the lunch, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office said.

During his time in Antigua, Carney will also meet one-on-one with the leaders of Australia, Guyana and Ghana.

The Commonwealth is a voluntary coalition of 56 countries. Most of them have ties to the former British Empire.

The trip is the latest in a flurry of international trips Carney has been making since he became prime minister last year — part of an ongoing attempt to pivot Canada away from dependence on the United States.

The modern Commonwealth was established in 1949 and Commonwealth countries together represent 2.7 billion people. Commonwealth members include large countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, India and Nigeria, and many of the world’s smallest countries — such as Tuvalu, a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean with a population of about 10,000.

Experts say ties with Commonwealth countries can help Canada win support in multilateral forums like the United Nations, a strategy Canada has used in the past.

Ahead of the trip, government officials described the Commonwealth meeting as a platform for Canada to expand trade, investment and strategic co-operation, and noted Canada currently has $100 billion in trade with Commonwealth countries.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2026.