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India’s Minister for Commerce and Industry Honourable Nirmala Sitharaman met with Canada Minister for International Trade Honourable Christiya Freedland met in Toronto on September 29 at the Third Annual India-Canada Annual Ministerial Dialogue.
Arun Srivastava, the newly-elected President of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC), participated in the luncheon held at MaRS in downtown Toronto. It covered outstanding trade and investment related issues and among other things, focussed on expanding bilateral trade, having more B 2 B interface with constitution of CEO Forum by Canada and regular interaction between the CEOs on both sides and also expediting the free trade and investment negotiations which are underway.
This was the first high level meet led by a Ministerial level delegation from India after the new Government came to power in Canada. The Trade Minister of Canada Honourable Freedland emphasied the importance of the bilateral relationship and expressed happiness at the back to back visit by the Indian Commerce and Industry Minister and the proposed visit of the Finance Minister Honourable Arun Jaitely in the first week of October.
Both the sides expressed their strong commitment for taking forward the negotiations in CEPA and FIFA and expressed the desire for early conclusion keeping in view the mutual benefits to both countries and working towards a balanced outcome by taking into account sensitivities in certain sectors. Both the sides recognized the importance of FIFA as tool for higher transparency and stability of investments providing greater protection.
Both the Ministers heard each other’s perspective on CEPA and discussed some of the sectors where negotiations seem to have been stuck. Responding to the Indian side which has shown enough flexibility in the services modalities, the Canadian side is looking into the issues concerned with movement of natural persons and what kind of provisions could be built into the CEPA.
India also took up the issues of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers Entry Programme which has acted as a barrier for the Indian IT companies invested in Canada to source Indian IT professionals as the norms for temporary entry have become more and more stringent. Honourable Minister Freedland assured that a Parliamentary Committee is examining these issues and some of these concerns are likely to be addressed.
It is recognised that India and Canada have enormous scope for enhanced bilateral trade relations but, the bilateral trade between the two countries has not been up to the potential. Both sides recognized the immense potential and mutual interest in promoting trade.
Prime Minister of India, Honourable Narendra Modi during his historic bilateral visit to Canada in April 2015, stressed the importance of bilateral business and commercial linkages as key drivers of India-Canada partnership. During his visit both the nations recognised the need for early finalisation of the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) and expeditiously conclude a progressive, balanced, and mutually beneficial Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), as a basis for expanding two-way trade and investment.
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