Canada’s Commerce Minister Mary Ng is suspending a trade mission with India in October. Talks on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and Canada were scheduled to take place in October. It has been suspended for now. Without mentioning the Khalistan issue, a senior Indian government official said talks would resume once the political issues are resolved.
India on Friday said it will not negotiate a free trade agreement with Canada unless it stops anti-India activities on its soil. Negotiations on FTA between the two countries are about to begin after almost a decade. But after this statement came from India, Canada reacted by canceling a trade mission to visit India next month. An Indian government official said the trade deal with Canada was cut off because of objections to Canada’s political developments.
Canada was India’s 35th largest trading partner. In FY2023, the trade was $8.16 billion. During this period, India exported $4.11 billion to Canada. Which was 3.76 billion dollars in 2022 fiscal year.
Imports from Canada rose 29.3 percent to $4.05 billion.
The Sikhs for Justice group held a referendum on Khalistan on September 10 at a British Columbia gurdwara. It is in this context that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his concern about anti-India activities in his country to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. After the G20 summit ended, Trudeau said Canada will always protect freedom of expression, freedom of conscience and the expression of peaceful protest. It is very important for us.
At the same time, we want an end to violence and hatred. It is known that FTA has been discussed several times between the two countries so far. This discussion started in 2010.
