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Canada, India to hold talks on trade, investment
India’s commerce minister Piyush Goyal will be visiting Canada from May 8 to 11 and hold talks with his Canadian counterpart Mary Ng
Toronto: Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development Mary Ng will host India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food, and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal, in Canada from May 8 to 11, according to a release from Global Affairs Canada, the country’s foreign ministry.
The release also noted that the two ministers will meet in Ottawa on May 8, for the sixth Canada-India Ministerial Dialogue on Trade and Investment (MDTI).
An interim trade pact will be an important aspect of the agenda. As the release stated, “Minister Goyal’s visit provides an opportunity for Canada and India to further their work towards an Early Progress Trade Agreement (EPTA).”
It pointed out that at the fifth MDTI held in March 2022, when Ng visited New Delhi, both ministers re-launched negotiations regarding a Canada-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). “In pursuit of that goal, negotiations towards an EPTA, as a transitional step towards the CEPA, have been underway. Seven rounds of discussions have taken place with the most recent round taking place from April 3 to 6, 2023, in Ottawa,” it said.
“Strengthening bilateral trade and investment ties helps create new opportunities and deepen economic relations between our two countries,” it added.
Ng will visit India in August for the trade ministers vertical of the G20 in Jaipur.
Indian officials are hopeful Goyal’s visit will give “political momentum” to the EPTA negotiations.
Goyal will visit Toronto on May 9 and 10 for meetings with trade and industry representatives and chambers of commerce, including addressing the apex Canada-India Business Council (C-IBC).
The trade dialogue between the two countries started in March last year when Ng visited New Delhi and met Goyal. They also launched the EPTA process. The EPTA, if concluded, will be a transitional step towards the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
Goyal’s possible visit, a senior Indian official said, could help give political direction to the talks and give them “momentum”.
Both countries originally hoped to finalise the agreement within a year but that deadline has elapsed and they are targeting potential finalisation of the document this autumn.
Overcoming key hurdles will depend on political will, and critical decisions could be made when Ng meets Goyal.
Both nations have focused on strengthening trade ties recently. After Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in New Delhi this March, the latter tweeted the talks encompassed bilateral issues including, among other matters, “trade, connectivity and people to people ties”.
Joly told attendees at the Indo-Canadian Business Chamber (ICBC) meet in New Delhi in March the “economic potential contained in strengthening the Canada-India relationship can’t be understated”.
