India, Canada race to seal CEPA by year-end
The chief negotiators of India and Canada will begin the fifth round of negotiations for the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in Ottawa on October 5, with an aim to conclude the talks by the end of this calendar year, an official said.
The five-day talks may end on October 9.
The fourth round of negotiations concluded here on September 18.
The talks are moving at a faster pace as both countries are targeting to conclude the negotiations by the end of this year.
The negotiations are important as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Canada around December this year, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said last month.
To give a further impetus to the talks, Canada’s Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu will visit New Delhi later this month with a 300-strong business delegation. Sidhu and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal met in Mumbai last month to review the progress of negotiations.
CEPA is a kind of free trade agreement in which two countries either significantly reduce or eliminate customs duties on the maximum number of goods traded between them. They also ease norms for the movement of skilled professionals and attract investments.
The two countries first launched the negotiations in 2015. During 2015-17, they held over half a dozen rounds of talks on the proposed pact. After that, the talks were paused.
In March 2022, the two countries re-launched negotiations for an interim agreement, officially dubbed the Early Progress Trade Agreement.
In 2023, Canada paused negotiations again after the bilateral relations hit rock bottom following then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s allegations of a potential Indian link to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India had dismissed Trudeau’s accusation as “absurd”.
In November 2025, the two countries decided to resume formal negotiations for the proposed free trade agreement.
The renewed vibrancy in ties between the two countries followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s talks with his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney on the margins of the G7 Summit at Canada’s Kananaskis in June last year.
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