India, Canada to hold negotiations on trade in September

Ottawa: Reaffirming its commitment to an interim trade pact with India, Canada said that the next round of negotiations will be held in September.

In a virtual meeting between Mary Ng, Canadian Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, and Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, both ministers emphasized the value of advancing trade and investment relations between the two countries, said a Global Affairs Canada in a press release.

Minister Ng expressed her appreciation of the spirit of cooperation and compromise that has been a hallmark of the negotiations, and reaffirmed Canada's goal of maintaining momentum in the fourth round of negotiations, which are scheduled to take place in September.
Both ministers underlined the progress in negotiations for a Canada-India early progress trade agreement held in July and August 2022, said the release.

Recently, India and Canada held the fifth Ministerial Dialogue on Trade & Investment (MDTI), where Ministers agreed to formally re-launch the negotiations for India-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and also consider an Interim Agreement or Early Progress Trade Agreement (EPTA) that could bring early commercial gains to both the countries.

The Ministers acknowledged the significance of establishing resilient supply chains in critical sectors and exchanged views on collaboration in this area.
An interim or early harvest trade agreement is used to liberalize tariffs on the trade of certain goods between two countries or trading blocs before a comprehensive FTA (Free Trade Agreement) is concluded.
The government's emphasis on interim agreements may be tactical so that a deal may be achieved with minimum commitments and would allow for contentious issues to be resolved later.

While, CEPA is a kind of free trade pact that covers negotiation on the trade in services and investment, and other areas of economic partnership.
It may even consider negotiation on areas such as trade facilitation and customs cooperation, competition, and Intellectual Property Rights.

Partnership agreements or cooperation agreements are more comprehensive than Free Trade Agreements.
CEPA also looks into the regulatory aspect of trade and encompasses an agreement covering the regulatory issues.
India is Canada's eleventh largest export market, and 12th largest trading partner overall. (ANI)