Indo-Canadian community welcomes start of FTA negotiations

The Indo-Canadian community has welcomed the beginning of negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between the two nations.

The response came after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper announced the beginning of negotiations for a Foreign Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries in their meeting during the G-20 summit in Seoul yesterday.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Deepak Obhrai yesterday said he was delighted to see the FTA becoming a reality.

Obhrai, who had called for a India-Canada FTA back in 2005, said: "Based on my experience as part of the Canadian trade delegations to India in 2000 and 2005, I have seen the remarkable growth of the Indian economy and the opportunities that it presents.

The time is right to seize those opportunities. When we come to power, we will give actions to words. I am very pleased to see that our efforts are now yielding positive results. This is another step towards enhancing trade and people-to-people relations between two vibrant democracies," he said.

Obhrai said he would like to congratulate the people who supported this idea and laid the groundwork for it to become a reality, among them the former Minister for International Trade David Emerson and former head of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives Thomas d'Aquino.

Noted economist Bhausaheb Ubale said the agreement could boost Canada's gross domestic product by at least $6 billion, and India may triple to 15 billion Canadian dollar ($14.9 billion) a year within the next five years.

In recent months, Canada has been active in trade negotiations, as it seeks to diversify away from the increasingly wobbly US economy.

Negotiators are in the midst of a trade pact with the European Union that they hope to complete next year.

As it stands, trade between Canada and India is fairly low (two-way trade hit a modest record of $4.2 billion in 2009) but India is one of the world's largest and fastest growing economies. The two countries also signed a nuclear pact in June.