India and Canada will start talks on their Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) next week, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said Friday at FICCI AGM. This comes just two weeks after the intent for the deal was announced at the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. The decision to re-launch negotiations on CEPA was announced on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Johannesburg when both the prime pinisters met.
Canada SEPA talks set, Israel negotiations soon
The agreement will cover trade in goods and services, investment, agriculture and agri-food, digital trade, mobility and sustainable development. “Canada and India are looking at CEPA. Next week they are going to start a conversation around that. We are equally engaged to start negotiations very quickly with Israel,” Goyal said. India and Israel signed Terms of Reference (ToR) of their proposed FTA last week. The minister said negotiations would commence soon for an early harvest of first tranche of the deal.
“At this moment we are in talks with 14 countries or groups of countries. Collectively representing 50 countries around the world. We are talking to Oman. At the same time Bahrain and Qatar want to enter into negotiation,” the minister said.
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 Carney as Prime Minister in March. The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that includes the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar also want to engage in talks again for an FTA as a group, the minister said. The talks on India-GCC have been held in the past too but efforts have been abandoned mid-way.
India widens FTA push across GCG, ASEAN, EU and Australia
Among the GCC, India already has a FTA with UAE and talks with Bahrain and Qatar to start negotiations are in progress. With Oman the FTA negotiations are in final stages. “We are talking to New Zealand. Simultaneously we are talking with Australia for a second stage agreement. We are reviewing the trade agreements with Asean and Korea to bring in more balance in it. We are in active discussions with the US and with the 27-nation EU,” Goyal said.
“We have all seen trade being weaponised. We have all seen the importance of having trusted partners around the world. To work with countries who believe in fair trade and equal opportunity on both sides. That is why we are working through multiple trade agreements with the developed nations,” the minister added. Talks on FTA with Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are currently in progress in New Delhi. “South Africa and countries of Southern Africa – South Africa Customs Union (SACU)- have expressed a desire to talk business,” he said.
(SACU) which has South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini. It is the world’s oldest customs union — over a century old. Discussions are also on for the second phase of preferential trade agreement with Mercosur bloc comprising Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
