CEOs form task force to study FTA between India and Canada
Financial Express (India)
20 June 2007
CEOs form task force to study FTA between India and Canada
ECONOMY BUREAU
NEW DELHI, JUN 19: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) have agreed to set up a task force to study the feasibility of India-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
This was decided at the meeting of the India-Canada CEOs Forum held in Montreal on Tuesday.
The Foreign Investment Protection Agreement (FIFA) that is being negotiated between India and Canada is the first step towards the FTA between the two countries. The two sides have set a target of $20 billion bilateral trade and $5 billion bilateral investment flow.
"We also plan to look at the services and investments part later. We hope to finish the feasibility study by this year-end and submit it to the government," said T S Vishwanath, head (International Trade Policy), CII. Commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath told the CEOs that India and Canada must seize this opportunity to significantly increase two-way trade and investment flows.
He suggested that alongside the target of $ 10 billion each annually in bilateral goods and services trade to be achieved in five years, India and Canada should work to achieve $ 5 billion a year in bilateral investment flows by 2012.
