Hindustan Times | 14 December 2025
Canada launches public consultations ahead of FTA talks with India
By Anirudh Bhattacharyya
The Canadian government has launched public consultations prior to the start of negotiations towards a free trade agreement with India, even as it stated that promoting trade and investment there “is a priority” for Ottawa.
In a release issued on Saturday by Global Affairs Canada, the country’s foreign ministry, Canada’s minister of international trade Maninder Sidhu announced the launch of the public consultations related to negotiations towards the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement or CEPA with India, and for trade pacts with the United Arab Emirates, Thailand and the South American bloc Mercosur.
“Canada is committed to building strong, diversified international partnerships that drive economic growth and create good jobs for Canadians,” the release noted.
The consultations are scheduled to end on January 27 next year.
GAC added, “Promoting trade and investment with growing markets like India is a priority for the government of Canada.”
It reiterated the objective underscored by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to double Canadian exports to non-US markets in the next decade.
“Pursuing new trade negotiations will help reach this objective, open new markets and opportunities for our workers and businesses and create high-paying jobs across the country as part of our trade diversification strategy,” Sidhu said.
It pointed out that in 2024, India was Canada’s seventh-largest goods and services trading partner, with two-way trade totalling CA$ 30.8 billion.
The announcement that India and Canada will enter into talks for CEPA came after Carney had a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the margins of the G20 leaders’ summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, last month.
A readout of the meeting issued by the Canadian PMO at the time said, “The leaders expressed confidence that CEPA will serve as a powerful economic anchor and help more than double two-way trade to CA$ 70 billion by 2030.”
India and Canada worked on a CEPA earlier but that was dropped in favour of the Early Progress Trade Agreement or EPTA in 2022, so they could capture low-hanging fruit. After several rounds of negotiations, Canada “paused” talks in August 2023, just weeks before then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated in the House of Commons on September 23 that year that there were “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar three months earlier in Surrey, British Columbia. India described those accusations as “absurd” and relations cratered.
A gradual reset was set in motion after Carney assumed charge as PM this year, with the breakthrough in relations coming when he held a bilateral with Modi on the margins of the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis in June. Since then, the relationship has gained momentum.
The public consultations will involve stakeholders, like business and civil society groups.
Earlier, while speaking at the Canadian Club Toronto on Friday, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand said there was “a strong basis for bilateral economic cooperation” with India. She said the approach of the Government was “pragmatism imbued with urgency.”
“We are in a moment where we must have conversations with countries where Canada’s interest can be advanced,” she added.