India-Canada trade ties continued to be robust in 2023

While 2023 witnessed a minor deceleration in bilateral trade, exports of India of smartphones to Canada grew by over 200%.

While 2023 witnessed a minor deceleration in bilateral trade, exports of India of smartphones to Canada grew by over 200%.

(FILES) A man walks past the High Commission of Canada in New Delhi on September 19, 2023. Canada said October 19, 2023 it had withdrawn 41 diplomats from India -- fallout from a bitter row over the killing of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil. New Delhi planned to revoke diplomatic immunity for all but 21 of Canada's diplomats and their families by Friday, forcing Ottawa to pull out the others, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said. (Photo by Arun SANKAR / AFP) (AFP)

India’s High Commissioner to Ottawa Sanjay Kumar Verma said there was a loss of “about 7% in bilateral trade till the end of October.” That is the period till which data is available from the Ministry of Commerce.

For the first ten months of 2023, bilateral trade in goods amounted to US$7.65 billion with India’s exports at US$4.70 billion and imports at US$2.95 billion, according to data from the High Commission. Trade in goods for all of 2022 had amounted to US$10.50 billion.

While trade has decreased slightly, some areas have shown impressive growth. Exports of smartphones manufactured in India rose by 227% between January and October 2023, from US$38.57 million for the same period in 2022 to US$126 million. Some Canadian exports also rose, with lentils and commodities such as copper ores and concentrates and non-alloyed nickel increasing by 100%.

While the previous year was marked by a dozen rounds of negotiations between the two countries towards an Early Progress Trade Agreement (EPTA), Ottawa paused talks in late August. Later, the reason became apparent when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated in the House of Commons on September 18 that there were “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia three months earlier.

A senior Indian official said that deal, an interim step towards a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, was close to finalisation when talks were called off indefinitely.

But Canadian businesses continue to look towards India as a market, with pension funds cumulatively investing over US$75 billion and “increasingly viewing India as a favourable destination for investments,” according to the High Commission.

Over 600 Canadian companies have a presence in India and over a 1000 are engaged in the Indian market.