Ottawa/New Delhi, March 10 (Agency) Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng is on a four-day visit to India, in a high level visit that marks a desire by the Justin Trudeau government to take bilateral ties forward. Ng, Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, is visiting New Delhi from March 10-13 to participate in the 5th India– Canada Ministerial Dialogue on Trade & Investment (MDTI). Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal will co-chair the ministerial dialogue on trade and investment. During the meeting various bilateral trade and investment issues will be discussed in order to further strengthen the bilateral ties and economic partnership including India-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), said an official statement.
Ahead of her departure, Ng said, “Canada and India already share strong trade and people-to-people ties, and I am committed to further strengthening our bilateral commercial relations.” The visit is being seen as a key step to take the bilateral ties forward, which had taken a down turn following Trudeau’s botched 2018 visit, which generated many negative headlines, chiefly because the Canadian PM invited Jaspal Atwal, convicted for attempting to assassinate Punjab Minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu in 1986, to a party in India. Trudeau’s hobnobbing with Khalistani separatists was not looked at kindly by India, and he had also spoken in favour of the agitating farmers, which had not gone down well with India.
Bilateral trade in goods reached US$ 6.29 billion registering a growth rate of 12% as compared to the previous year. Total bilateral trade including goods and services crossed US$ 11 billion. In current financial year during April 2021-January 2022, Indian exports to Canada have increased to US$ 3 billion approx. registering a growth of almost 25% over the previous year, said a statement. Major Indian exports to Canada include drugs and pharmaceutical products, iron & steel products, marine products, cotton fabrics & readymade garments (RMG) and chemicals etc, while key Canadian exports to India comprise pulses, fertilizers, coal and crude petroleum etc.