India and Canada launch talks for free trade agreement

New Delhi: India and Canada have launched negotiations for a free trade agreement and look to finalise the pact soon, an official statement said on Monday.

The pact is officially known as the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and the negotiations would cover trade in goods, services and other mutually agreed policy areas. The Terms of Reference (ToR) for the agreement were signed by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and his Canadian counterpart Maninder Sidhu here.

It was exchanged in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada at Hyderabad House here.

“India and Canada launched negotiations for the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) today in New Delhi and decided to finalise it soon,” the commerce ministry said.

The ToR of negotiations will provide format, frequency, and approach to the CEPA negotiations. It will serve as a guide to facilitate negotiations in order to conclude an ambitious, balanced and mutually beneficial pact. The launch marks the resumption of negotiations, as the two countries had earlier engaged in a similar exercise, but Canada paused it in 2023. Now they decided to resume talks from the beginning as a lot has changed on the global trade front during these two years.

The negotiations are important as the two sides have fixed a target to increase the bilateral trade to $50 billion by 2030. At present, it stood at $8.66 billion in 2024-25 ($4.22 billion exports and $4.44 billion imports). Canada represents a market of 41.65 million people (2025) and a GDP of $2.34 trillion at purchasing power parity.

Key exports from India to Canada include pharmaceuticals, iron and steel, seafood, cotton garments, electronic goods and chemicals, among others. Key imports include pulses, pearls and semi-precious stones, coal, fertiliser, paper and petroleum crude. India’s main services sector exports include telecommunications, computer and information services, and other business services.

“These sectors hold significant future growth potential and are expected to expand further following the conclusion of the CEPA,” it said.

Canada is also home to over 425,000 Indian students and a strong Indian community. Joint Secretary in the Department of Commerce, Brij Mohan Mishra, is the chief negotiator from the Indian side. Bruce Christie is Canada’s chief negotiator.