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Canada has eyed some form of robust trade deal with India for over a decadepublished at 02:26 GMT
Nadine Yousif
Reporting from Toronto
For the better part of the last 15 years, Canada and India have been engaged in on-and-off talks on establishing a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the two countries.
Those talks have not yielded many results, and were effectively halted after Ottawa’s bombshell allegation accusing India of carrying out a murder on Canadian soil in 2023.
But analysts believe the global landscape and priorities have changed over the last year — so much so that a robust trade agreement between Canada and India could be on the horizon.
In the two-year recent diplomatic freeze between Canada and India, Delhi has managed to reach agreements with several countries, including the UK and the European Union.
It also has agreed on a framework for a deal with the US.
“Canada finds itself in a situation where it is the only G7 country without a preferential trade agreement with India,” Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, tells the BBC.
At the same time, India has shifted its policy and opened its doors for these types of comprehensive deals in recent months, which has provided “a window of opportunity,” Nadjibulla says.
“This is a new moment,” she adds. “And there is an appetite on both sides.”