The chief negotiators of India and Canada will meet this week to design the agenda and way forward on the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), commerce secretary Rajesh Agrawal said Monday.
The meeting will be held virtually. Both sides have resumed discussions on their trade pact after a gap of two years. In the previous attempt ten rounds of negotiations had been held before the talks were abandoned.
Status of the talks
It is yet to be decided whether the latest attempt will start from where the negotiations were left off or the whole process would be repeated again.
“It’s already been two years since we stopped that negotiation. Both countries have moved on, the world has moved on. A lot of other challenges in trade are coming up. So it has to be decided whether we take off from there, repurpose it, reposition it,” the secretary added.
Overview of CEPA negotiations with Canada
The negotiations on CEPA with Canada were first started in 2010 but could not make much progress. The negotiations were relaunched in March 2022 before being abandoned in August-September of 2023 due to political differences. The repair of the breach started with the election of Mark Carney as Prime Minister in March.
Agrawal also said that the trade agreement negotiations on New Zealand are in final stages and the next round of India-Australia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) will be held in January. So far both sides have held 11 rounds of talks on the agreement that seeks to expand Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement signed in 2022.