Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal has indicated that India is keeping every option open as it looks at the possibility of restarting free trade agreement (FTA) talks with Canada. His comments follow a fresh round of ministerial interactions aimed at lifting bilateral engagement.
Goyal said he recently held two rounds of discussions with Canada’s minister of export promotion, international trade and economic development, Maninder Sidhu, as both governments assess how to move ahead.“All possibilities are on the table. We have had two rounds of discussions now – we met in Delhi for a high-level ministerial meeting. We met (here) briefly to discuss the way forward to strengthen bilateral cooperation and strategic partnership,” he said, as cited by PTI.The minister made these remarks when asked whether the increasing number of exchanges between the two sides meant that FTA negotiations could resume soon. Sidhu was in India to attend the CII Partnership Summit 2025.During the visit, the two ministers jointly led the India-Canada ministerial dialogue on trade and investment (MDTI) in New Delhi. The meeting examined ways to enhance trade and investment flows and reviewed cooperation in areas such as supply chain resilience and the health sector.These engagements come against the backdrop of Canada’s decision in 2023 to pause FTA negotiations with India. The diplomatic relationship had sharply deteriorated that year after then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged a possible Indian role in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a charge India had dismissed as “absurd”.Negotiations for an interim pact, the Early Progress Trade Agreement (EPTA), had been restarted in March 2022, and over six rounds of talks had taken place before the freeze.A full trade agreement typically involves lowering or removing customs duties on most traded goods, along with easing rules to support services trade and investment.
India-Canada trade figures
Trade figures show that India’s exports to Canada rose 9.8% to $4.22 billion in 2024–25, up from $3.84 billion the previous year. Meanwhile, imports from the country slipped 2.33% to $4.44 billion compared with $4.55 billion in 2023–24. Total bilateral trade in goods and services stood at $18.38 billion in 2023.Ties have gained fresh momentum following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney during the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Canada, in June.Canada hosts about 2.9 million people of Indian origin and more than 427,000 Indian students.Goyal and Sidhu had also met earlier in October, adding to the series of recent interactions.
