India, Canada kick off second round of free trade talks

New Delhi, May 5 (IANS) India and Canada began the second round of negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement, with the two sides aiming to seal the deal by year-end.

The five-day talks in New Delhi come on Monday ahead of the Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal's scheduled visit to Canada at the end of this month to accelerate the momentum of the economic engagement as the two countries target increasing bilateral trade to $50 billion by 2030.

"The attempt is to fast-track talks so that the agreement can be concluded by the year-end as decided by the Prime Ministers of the two countries earlier this year," a senior official told IANS.

The first round of negotiations for the pact, officially called the India-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), took place in March this year following Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi.

Prime Minister Carney's visit to India set the tone for a marked improvement in diplomatic ties between the two countries that had hit rock bottom during his predecessor Justin Trudeau as Canada's Prime Minister.

The Trudeau government was seen to be encouraging Sikh extremists to pursue an 'anti-India' agenda in Canada.

Prime Minister Modi and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney set a year-end target to complete the negotiations for the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the two countries and agreed to deepen bilateral collaboration in the energy and critical mineral sectors during their meeting at New Delhi in March this year.

"The leaders expressed confidence that a comprehensive trade framework would serve as a durable economic anchor for the partnership and support the shared aspiration of expanding bilateral trade to CAD 70 billion/Rs 4.65 lakh crore by 2030," according to joint statement issued after the summit between the two leaders.

India-Canada bilateral trade in goods stood at $8.66 billion in 2024-25, while India's exports to the country touched $4.22 billion.

Major items of India's exports to Canada include pharmaceutical products, machinery parts and mechanical appliances, iron and steel articles, electronic goods, organic chemicals, jewellery, gems and precious stones, garments and textiles, seafood, engineering goods and auto parts.

India's major imports from Canada include pulses, fertilisers, mineral fuels, wood pulp, gems and precious stones, aircraft parts, machinery parts, and iron and aluminium scrap.

India's IT sector is the main contributor to services exports to Canada.