Canadian Trade Minister Sidhu seeks fresh start to revive ties with India

Canada and India are working to rebuild trade ties and explore new areas of cooperation after a two-year chill, with Ottawa keen to restart trade negotiations under "a new process", Canadian Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu said on Thursday.

Sidhu, on a three-day visit to India, met Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal for what he described as a very productive ministerial dialogue focused on sectors including critical minerals, clean energy, agriculture and artificial intelligence.

"The meeting went really well. We focused on areas of opportunity - aerospace, AI, critical minerals, energy, agriculture - and what more we can do together," Sidhu told Reuters in an interview after the meeting.

Sidhu's visit marks a major high-level trade engagement since Canada paused negotiations for a broad trade pact in 2023, after relations soured when Ottawa accused New Delhi of involvement in the killing of a Canadian Sikh separatist.

Sidhu said the two sides were now "in early discussions to restart the process", referring to global economic shifts including the imposition of high tariffs by the United States on goods from both countries.

He said the government of Canada's new Prime Minister Mark Carney brought "a new focus, new energy and new mandate", and was keen to enhance cooperation with India to attract investment in the energy and critical minerals sectors.

"Canada has every element needed to build an electric battery," Sidhu said, adding that Ottawa welcomed investment from India in mining critical minerals and infrastructure projects.

Relations between the countries began to improve following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with Carney on the sidelines of the G7 summit in June.

India is a priority market for Canada, with two-way goods and services trade reaching about $31 billion in 2024, largely in Canada's favour due to its $16 billion services exports.

India is Canada's biggest source of immigrants, with nearly 393,000 Indian students in 2024 and more than 1.8 million Canadians of Indian origin.

Sidhu met executives from Indian conglomerates, including Tata, and said they wanted to do more in Canada.

He also said Goyal had committed to visiting Canada soon with a trade and investment delegation.