India's Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and his Canadian counterpart Mary Ng, Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development are slated to co-chair the discussions for the 6th India-Canada Ministerial Dialogue on Trade and Investment (MDTI) in Ottawa today. The ministers are also expected to review the CEPA negotiations where seven rounds have already been held.

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Last month, CNBC-TV18 reported that the CEPA negotiations were in the advanced stage for market access to goods and services.

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While the investment discussions are slated to be held later, the tracks discussed till now included: goods (tariff), SPS, TBT, ROO and origin procedures, customs and trade facilitation, trade remedies, labour, environment, trade in services/telecom/financial services/temporary entry, dispute settlement, institutional and core provisions.

The dialogue is expected to focus on various themes to strengthen the India-Canada bilateral trade relationship, investment promotion and cooperation, along with discussions on new areas of cooperation like green transition, critical minerals and promotion of B2B engagements.

The bilateral mechanism MDTI provides for an institutional mechanism to discuss a broad spectrum of trade and investment-related issues and cooperation areas.

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The last MDTI meeting in March 2022 witnessed the launch of India-Canada CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) negotiations with the possibility to have an interim agreement or EPTA (Early Progress Trade Agreement).

Apart from the traditional areas, the EPTA may cover sectors like SMEs, trade and gender, environment and labour.

Post this ministerial dialogue, Goyal is slated to visit Toronto on May 9-10, where he is expected to chair a roundtable of Indian and Canadian CEOs and meet CEOs of several Canadian companies while being accompanied by a FICCI-led delegation of Indian CEOs.

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