Canada’s minister of international trade Maninder Sidhu has underscored his country’s “role as a trusted and reliable long-term economic partner for India.”
Sidhu’s remarks came in a statement issued on Friday by Global Affairs Canada, the country’s foreign ministry, after he met with commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on the margins of the G20 Trade Ministers’ gathering in Milwaukee on Thursday.
Sidhu also noted he will lead a Team Canada Trade Mission to India later this month “bringing close to 300 Canadian delegates from businesses across key sectors to make connections, find new customers and pursue opportunities in one of the world’s fastest-growing markets.” That will make the mission Canada’s largest-ever to India and at the level of the mission he led to Japan in June this year.
The trade mission, announced in July, is scheduled for October 12 to 16. The Canada-India Business Council or C-IBC is playing an integral role in the mission. Its president and CEO Victor Thomas said, “This month’s Team Canada Trade Mission to India reflects the strength and promise of the India–Canada relationship. In trade and investment, we have only scratched the surface of what our two nations can achieve. This is not the finish line. It’s the starting line.”
Sidhu also visited India in September and was present for the completion of the fourth round of negotiations towards a comprehensive economic partnership agreement or CEPA between the two countries. “Building on the momentum generated from their meeting in Mumbai last month, the ministers continued to advance Canada-India trade and investment priorities,” the statement noted.
{{/usCountry}}Sidhu also visited India in September and was present for the completion of the fourth round of negotiations towards a comprehensive economic partnership agreement or CEPA between the two countries. “Building on the momentum generated from their meeting in Mumbai last month, the ministers continued to advance Canada-India trade and investment priorities,” the statement noted.
{{/usCountry}}The fifth round will take place from October 5 to 9. “Minister Sidhu emphasised the importance of working toward a mutually beneficial agreement by the end of this year,” the statement said.
Negotiations are being facilitated at the highest levels, with Sidhu visiting Mumbai for the conclusion of the fourth round. The fifth is expected to see Secretary-level involvement.
That fresh negotiations towards CEPA will take place was announced when Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Mark Carney met on the margins of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg in November 2025. They were officially launched when Carney, on his maiden visit to India as PM, held a bilateral with Modi in New Delhi this March.
The two PMs have set a deadline of the end of the year for concluding the negotiations.
They met again in June on the he margins of the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Evian, France, and “expressed satisfaction” with the progress in the CEPA negotiations, according to a readout from the Canadian PMO at the time. That readout added they reaffirmed their “commitment to building a forward-looking strategic partnership.”
Both leaders said they want talks to conclude by the time the G20 Leaders’ Summit is held in Miami in December. Modi added in Evian that he will try and visit Canada before the end of this year. That bilateral visit, the first in 10 years by an Indian PM, will be for signing of the CEPA.