India, Canada formally decide to expedite talks on Free Trade Agreement

India's Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal and Canadian minister for international trade Mary Ng on Friday agreed to formally relaunch the negotiations for India-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and also consider an interim agreement or Early Progress Trade Agreement (EPTA) that expedite mutual commercial gains, it said.

India and Canada on Friday held the fifth Ministerial Dialogue on Trade & Investment (MDTI) in New Delhi.

“The Interim Agreement would include high-level commitments in goods, services, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, and dispute settlement, and may also cover any other areas mutually agreed upon,” the statement issued by the commerce ministry said.

The ministers highlighted the existing trade complementarities between India and Canada and emphasised that the trade agreement would help in expanding bilateral trade in goods and services through unlocking the potential across sectors.

Both countries agreed to undertake intensified work with respect to the recognition of Canada’s systems approach to pest risk management in pulses and market access for Indian agriculture goods such as sweet corn, baby corn, banana, etc.

Canada also agreed to examine expeditiously the request for Conformity Verification Body (CVB) status to APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority) for facilitating Indian organic export products.

They also emphasised enhancing cooperation in sectors such as pharmaceuticals and critical and rare earth minerals among others.

The ministers agreed to work closely to provide sustained momentum to building linkages and strengthen cooperation across sectors to harness the full potential of the trade and investment relationship between India and Canada.

Both countries reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen trade and commercial ties through enhanced partnerships and cooperation in identified areas such as agro-products, chemicals, footwear, textiles, automobiles, energy, electronics, minerals and metals, urban development, information technology and tourism.

They also expressed satisfaction over the strong recovery of bilateral trade in 2021 after the economic contraction as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with bilateral trade in goods reaching US$ 6.29 billion registering a growth rate of 12 percent as compared to the previous year.