Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer
Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, and Textiles, Government of
India along with Mary Ng, Minister of International Trade, Export
Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, Government of
Canada, co-chaired the the sixth India- Canada Ministerial Dialogue on
Trade and Investment (MDTI) on 8th May 2023 in Ottawa. The Ministers
emphasized the solid foundation of the trade and economic relationship
between Canada and India and recognized the significant opportunity to
deepen bilateral ties and economic partnership.
Minister Mary Ng
expressed her support for India as G20 Chair and the priorities pursued
by India in the G20 Trade and Investment Working Group. She indicated
that she is looking forward to participating in the upcoming G-20 Trade
and Investment Ministerial meeting in India scheduled to take place in
August 2023.
India-Canada bilateral trade in goods reached about
US$ 8.2 billion in 2022, registering about 25% growth compared to 2021.
The Ministers also underlined the contribution of the services sector in
furthering the bilateral relationship and noted the significant
potential for increasing bilateral services trade which stood at about
US $6.6 billion in 2022.
The Ministers emphasized enhancing
cooperation in sectors such as clean technologies for infrastructure
development, critical minerals, electric vehicles and batteries,
renewable energy/hydrogen, and AI. The Ministers asked their officials
to discuss trade remedies issues of bilateral importance on a regular
basis.
The Ministers reviewed the progress so far achieved in the
India-Canada Free Trade Agreement negotiations in the seven rounds of
negotiations so far. The Ministers reaffirmed that EPTA would cover,
among others, high level commitments in goods, services, investment,
rules of origin, sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures, technical
barriers to trade, and dispute settlement, and may also cover others
where mutual agreement is reached.
Key outcomes:
The two
sides agreed to explore enhanced cooperation through measures such as
coordinated investment promotion, information exchange and mutual
support between the two parties in near future through a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) preferably in Fall of 2023.
The Ministers
agreed on the importance of G2G coordination to promote critical mineral
supply chain resiliency and committed to an annual dialogue at the
official level on the margins of the Prospectors and Developers
Association Conference (PDAC) in Toronto to discuss issues of mutual
interest.
Both Ministers agreed to rework and relaunch the
Canada-India CEO Forum with renewed focus and a new set of priorities.
The CEO Forum could be announced at a mutually-agreed early date. The
CEO Forum would be a platform to enhance B2B engagement.
Minister
Mary Ng announced that she would lead a Team Canada trade mission to
India in October 2023. This will present an opportunity to further the
trade and investment ties between the two countries as she is likely to
bring a big business delegation for the same.
The Ministers noted
the significant movement of professionals and skilled workers,
students, and business travellers between the two countries, and its
immense contribution to enhancing the bilateral economic partnership and
in this context noted the desire for enhanced discussions in the area
of migration and mobility.
The Ministers discussed appropriate
mechanisms to discuss talent and innovation partnership to strengthen
the bilateral innovation ecosystem.
In order to review the
progress being made under mechanisms established under the MDTI and
regular follow-up the both sides will come up with an annual work plan
which would be reviewed and reported on a regular basis.
The
Ministers agreed to remain engaged to provide sustained momentum to
building linkages and strengthening cooperation across sectors to
harness the full potential of the trade and investment relationship
between India and Canada.