Canada and India are aiming to more than double their bilateral trade to USD 70 billion in the next five years. Canadian Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu said free trade negotiations are ongoing and expected to conclude in the coming months.
Canada and India are aiming to scale their bilateral trade from USD 30 billion to USD 70 billion over the next five years, with ongoing free trade negotiations expected to conclude in the coming months, Canadian International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu said on Thursday (local time).
Speaking at the 2026 G20 Trade Ministers Meeting in Milwaukee on the India-Canada trade deal, Sidhu said, “The vision that leaders have set out for us is to scale trade from USD 30 billion to USD 70 billion within the next five years. How do we get there? Part of it is through the greater facilitation of free trade. Right now, negotiations are ongoing to see what we can do together to build our economies in a complementary manner rather than competing with one another.”
Deepening Economic Ties and Investment
Highlighting the recent momentum in talks, the Canadian minister noted that the fifth round of negotiations for the trade agreement is scheduled to take place in Ottawa on Monday. “I was just in India about 10 days ago, meeting with Minister Piyush Goyal in Mumbai. We were discussing Round 4 then. Round 5 will happen in Ottawa on Monday, and we are going to continue those conversations. Of course, negotiations are always tough, but we look forward to concluding in the coming months. It is important that Canada continues to have these conversations. Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Modi have had excellent conversations on how we can bring our economies closer together,’ Sidhu said.
Underlining Canada’s existing financial footprint in India, Sidhu pointed out that “Canada is the largest collective investor in India, with over USD 100 billion invested. Canadian companies are involved in many infrastructure projects there, building airports and highways. We want to see more cooperation, and we also welcome Indian investors to invest in our mining and energy projects so we can grow together. It involves trade, investments, research, and collaboration.”
Energy and Critical Minerals as Cornerstones
Sidhu emphasised that energy and critical minerals form the cornerstone of the strategic economic alignment between the two nations, noting, “India’s economy is growing at 7% year-over-year, and the country will require 70% more energy by 2035. We have that energy in Canada. Prime Minister Carney just launched the LNG Canada Phase 2 two days ago, which is going to be the second-largest LNG project in the world… As India builds, Canada wants to be there to help build India as well.”
Supply Chains and Strategic Sectors
Addressing key sectors involved in the trade deal, the minister stated that while detailed specifics remain confidential due to ongoing talks, the focus remains heavily on supply chain diversification. “Well, negotiations are ongoing, so I will be very careful about detailing that through the media. However, you can tell from my conversations that it is about collaboration. India is looking to diversify some of its supply chains. If you look at critical minerals, India has a growing auto sector, and for EVs and batteries, Canada is the only country in the Western Hemisphere that has every single element to make an electro-paddock. And so there is something that we can add. We just held our investment summit in Toronto. We had a lot of amazing investors come to Canada… We came out with about $500 million in commitments. So we have a lot of projects that we can work on together, energy, critical minerals, aerospace, and others,” he added.
India Confirms Fast-Tracked Talks
Earlier, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said that India and Canada have agreed to fast-track negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), with the next round of talks scheduled to begin on October 5. Goyal said he had concluded the fourth round of negotiations for the proposed trade agreement with his Canadian counterpart, Minister of International Trade Maninder Sidhu, in Mumbai last week.
“I have concluded the fourth round of negotiations for the Canada trade deal with my counterpart, Mr Maninder Sidhu in Mumbai on Friday. Very productive discussions, and both sides have resolved to fast-track negotiations, in view of which our team is now slated to go for the fifth round. Fifth of October. So you can see that as the progress is taking shape, the speed of negotiations with Canada is also improving. Let’s see, the next 90 days should be a very defining period in the Canada-India relationship,” he said.
Background of the Trade Pact
The latest round follows a renewed push by the two countries to conclude a comprehensive trade agreement. Canada had said ahead of Sidhu’s September 18-19 visit to Mumbai that three rounds of the fresh CEPA negotiations had been completed and that both sides shared the objective of concluding negotiations by the end of 2026.
India and Canada have discussed a comprehensive trade pact for more than a decade. Negotiations were formally relaunched in March 2022, with the two sides also pursuing an Early Progress Trade Agreement as an interim step. Nine negotiating rounds were held between 2022 and 2023 before the process was paused in August 2023 amid a period of strain in bilateral relations. Trade engagement gathered momentum again in 2025. The two countries subsequently launched a fresh CEPA process, with Goyal and Sidhu signing the Terms of Reference on March 2, 2026, during Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to India. Both governments committed to seeking conclusion of the negotiations by the end of 2026.
Bilateral trade between India and Canada stood at around USD 8 billion in FY 2025-26, with India exporting goods worth USD 4.67 billion and importing USD 3.28 billion, according to the Commerce Ministry. (ANI)
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