Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Mary Ng, spoke with India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal last week on the margins of the G20 trade ministers’ meeting in Nusa Dua, Indonesia.
This in-person meeting was seen as an important milestone in the ongoing free trade negotiations between the two countries as the ministers discussed ways to move forward on key issues.
The ministers reaffirmed the two countries’ goal of maintaining momentum in the fourth round of negotiations, which was scheduled to take place at the end of September.
Canada and India re-launched talks on a free trade agreement following a Ministerial Dialogue held in New Delhi in March 2022.
At the time both sides agreed to consider an interim agreement or Early Progress Trade Agreement (EPTA) that could be concluded early as a transitional step towards the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).