India and Canada have closed three chapters of their Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations, all on services, and aim to finalise the agreement by the end of the year, government sources said. The officials were not named.
Where the talks stand
The terms of reference were signed on 2 March 2026 during Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's visit to New Delhi. Five rounds have been held since, the fifth in Ottawa in early October. The sixth round is under way in New Delhi from 11 to 20 November, and another is planned for December. Sixteen policy areas are under negotiation, among them market access for goods and services, rules of origin, trade remedies, intellectual property, investment promotion, customs and trade facilitation, and dispute resolution.
The two sides are working on language to ease the flow of goods, in particular potash from Canada to India. India is seeking Canadian investment, especially from the so-called Maple Eight, a group of Canadian pension funds that have put more than 80 billion dollars into Indian real estate and infrastructure over the past decade. A separate investment protection agreement is being negotiated alongside the trade deal.
Trade and diplomacy
Indian merchandise exports to Canada were 2.67 billion dollars in April to September, up 18 per cent from the same period last year. Canada is in a trade dispute with the United States after talks collapsed, and the deal with India is part of its effort to diversify exports. India also wants to diversify away from the United States, its largest North American market, where its merchandise exports reached 59 billion dollars in April to October.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Ottawa and Toronto in early December, in what would be his first stand-alone bilateral visit to Canada in over a decade. The expected agenda includes Canadian investment in India, the trade agreement and possible expansion of trade in minerals and energy. Ties worsened in September 2023 after Justin Trudeau alleged links between Indian officials and the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, and have steadied since Carney became Liberal leader in March 2025, with security talks between national security advisers now institutionalised.
The report relied on unnamed sources, and some of its dates and background details were inconsistent, so the timeline above is limited to the points that matched across the text.
