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Rewiring of global economic order has led Canada to diversify supply chains, trading partners: Anita Anand
Canada’s foreign minister Anita Anand said talks will soon begin on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) with India
Toronto: The rewiring of the global economic order has led to Canada taking steps that include starting negotiations towards a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) with India, the country’s Foreign Minister has said.
Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand said, “Over the course of the last few years, the geopolitical environment has changed substantially not only in terms of military conflict but also in terms of the economic environment where the economic order is becoming rewired.”
As a “result of that rewiring, Canada has taken a number of a steps”, under Prime Minister Mark Carney, she noted including “diversifying supply chains and trading partners, with the world’s largest economies including India where we have agreed to start negotiations on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement”.
She said Ottawa was “cognisant of the fact that the global economic environment has fundamentally changed”. Anita made these remarks even as Carney arrived in China for the first bilateral visit by a Canadian leader since 2017.
Carney is also expected to visit India during the first quarter of this year at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The reset in relations between the two countries commenced after Carney invited PM Modi to the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, in June last year, and it evolved into renewal as they held another bilateral meeting on the margins of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg in November. That meeting led to the two countries announcing fresh negotiations towards CEPA. Those talks are scheduled to be formally launched in February after Canada completes its public consultation process in late January.
The change in ties came after they had cratered following then Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s statement in the House of Commons on September 18, 2023, that there were “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Sigh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, three months earlier. India had dismissed those accusations as “absurd” and “motivated”.
Both Canada and India also facing the challenge of high tariffs imposed by the administration of US President Donald Trump.
In a year-end interview with state broadcaster CBC, Carney said, “He (Trump) respects that the UAE wants to invest or intends to invest CA$ 70 billion in Canada, he respects that we have launched trade negotiations with India, that we are having a rapprochement with China, that we are deepening our security relationship with Europe…”
In that context, he added, “All of those steps are in Canada’s interest.”
“We have too many eggs in the American basket. We would like to maintain that relationship and grow others. We absolutely need to grow others,” he said, while mentioning India, China, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and others in that relation.
A readout of the meeting issued by the Canadian prime minister’s office after the announcement of beginning free trade talks said, “The leaders expressed confidence that CEPA will serve as a powerful economic anchor and help more than double two-way trade to CA$ 70 billion by 2030.”
