India Canada Trade Talks: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Canada’s International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu discussed the framework, objectives and modalities of starting negotiations on a free trade agreement.
The two sides recently agreed to restart negotiations on the agreement, officially known as the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). Its objective is to increase bilateral trade to 50 billion dollars by 2030.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal gave information
Giving information on social media platform “We held preliminary and comprehensive discussions on the overall vision, framework, broad objectives and modalities as we prepare to launch the CEPA negotiations.”
He also agreed to lead a high-level trade and investment delegation to Canada next year. It is noteworthy that, in the year 2023, the then Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau had accused India of having a hand in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. After that relations between the two countries soured. After that Canada had stopped talks on the agreement with India.
What is CEPA?
CEPA is a type of free trade agreement. Under which two countries either significantly reduce or eliminate customs duty on the maximum number of goods traded between them. These agreements also ease the norms of movement of skilled professionals and attract investments.
Earlier, more than six rounds of talks had taken place between the two countries on the proposed agreement. India’s exports to Canada increased by 9.8 percent to $ 4.22 billion in 2024-25, from $ 3.84 billion in 2023-24. However, imports declined by 2.33 percent to $4.44 billion in the last financial year, which was $4.55 billion in 2023-24. Bilateral trade in goods and services between India and Canada was worth $18.38 billion in 2023.
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