Corporate Canada disappointed after pause on trade deal negotiations with India
Toronto: Corporate Canada is disappointed with the news that Ottawa has placed a pause on negotiations towards an Early Progress Trade Agreement (EPTA) with India.
Cranes and containers are seen at the Port Metro Vancouver, in Vancouver, Canada. (AFP)
The “pause”, after ten rounds of negotiations, was revealed by India’s High Commissioner to Ottawa Sanjay Kumar Verma on Friday. He told the Hindustan Times it was “requested by the Canadian side”.
Reacting to the development, Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Ottawa-headquartered Business Council of Canada (BCC), described it as “unfortunate”.
He felt the “pause” to due to what “appears a mix of politics and actual difficulty in negotiating on content”.
The politics is related to pro-Khalistan activity in Canada including the so-called Khalistan Referendum along with other irritants like displaying anti-India posters featuring India’s senior-most diplomats in the country and the appearance of a float featuring the assassination of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during a parade in the Greater Toronto Area in June.
The problem with regard to the actual negotiations, Hyder felt was that there was “over-reaching to be more than just” an EPTA, which is expected to be trimmed precursor of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
“With over ten years of working on a still to complete Foreign Investment Protection Agreement (FIPA) and now the inability to even finalise what should be a fairly basic EPTA, it doesn’t reflect well on either side,” the BCC head said.
“We hope this is nothing more than a short pause to take a deep breath,” Hyder said.
There is still hope that the pause will be temporary. A person engaged in the Canada-India business corridor, said the “relationship” between Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and his Canadian counterpart, Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development Mary Ng, “is still strong so it is a possibility”.
Ng, in fact, is expected to lead a Team Canada trade delegation to India in October.
A senior Indian official said the “pause” could be attributed to the Canadian side wishing to “take stock” of the state of the negotiations and would not speculate on whether it was linked to pro-Khalistan activity in Canada.
The “pause” came just ahead of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to India on September 9 and 10 to attend the G20 leaders’ summit.
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