Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Canada’s Minister of International Trade Maninder Sidhu signed the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the agreement in New Delhi. The documents were exchanged in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at Hyderabad House.
Both sides have agreed on a broad deadline to conclude the agreement by the end of 2026, Secretary (East) P Kumaran had said earlier in the day.
PM Modi said the two countries have set a target to raise bilateral trade to $50 billion by 2030 and decided to conclude the CEPA soon to unlock the full potential of economic cooperation. Meanwhile, his Canadian counterpart said the pact reflects an expansion of a valued partnership with new ambition, focus and foresight between two confident countries shaping their future course.
The ToR will define the structure and pace of negotiations and guide discussions to conclude an ambitious and balanced trade pact. The agreement will cover trade in goods, services and other mutually agreed areas.
The relaunch of talks follows a diplomatic freeze in 2023 that had slowed trade negotiations and wider engagement. Kumaran said relations are now “way better” than the lows of that period. Both countries have restored High Commissioners — Dinesh K. Patnaik for India and Christopher Cooter for Canada — and are progressively increasing diplomatic staff strength to pre-2023 levels.
“This was his first visit to India since assuming office and the first bilateral visit by a Canadian Prime Minister in eight years. The visit marks an important inflection point in the India-Canada relationship,” Kumaran said, referring to Carney’s February 27–March 2 visit.To sustain momentum beyond political cycles, both sides revived and launched institutional platforms. The India-Canada CEO Forum was reconstituted and met in New Delhi on March 2. A new ministerial-level Economic and Financial Dialogue has also been established to streamline capital flows and investment cooperation.
Kumaran said the visit saw commercial announcements and investment commitments across pharmaceuticals and life sciences, agri-food processing, clean technology and water infrastructure, financial services and fintech, advanced manufacturing, hospitality and digital innovation.
He added that investments increasingly span next-generation sectors such as regenerative medicine, AI-enabled banking, cybersecurity, clean energy technologies and advanced industrial solutions.
Energy security and critical minerals also featured prominently. Discussions covered long-term uranium supply arrangements for India’s nuclear sector and cooperation on lithium and cobalt. Both sides are looking to deepen collaboration in infrastructure, capital markets and institutional investments.
Since then, both sides have moved to stabilise relations and restore economic dialogue. The decision to finalise the ToR follows discussions between the two leaders on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Kananaskis, Canada, in October 2025, where they agreed to resume work on the CEPA framework.
Bilateral trade between India and Canada stood at $8.66 billion in FY2024-25. India exported goods worth $4.22 billion and imported $4.44 billion, according to official data.
India’s key exports to Canada include pharmaceuticals, iron and steel, seafood, cotton garments, electronic goods and chemicals. Major imports from Canada include pulses, coal, fertiliser, paper and crude oil. In services, India exports telecommunications, computer and information services, and other business services.
Canada is home to more than 425,000 Indian students and a large Indian community, making people-to-people ties a central pillar of the relationship.