Question Period Note: Canada-India Relations

Canada-India Bilateral Relations

• India and Canada have deep and historic people-to-people links. Indo-Canadians represent roughly 5.6% of Canada's population (1.9 million people), make up an important part of Canadian society and play a significant role in Canadian culture, business and politics.

• Two-way merchandise trade between Canada and India amounted to $9.4 billion in 2018. India was Canada's 9th largest destination for merchandise exports in 2018.

• That same year, the number of Indians studying in Canada's universities, colleges and schools reached over 172,000 making India Canada's number one source country for students. Also, almost 300,000 Indian tourists visited Canada, making India our tenth-largest tourist market.

• Beyond increasing trade and economic linkages, Canada-India bilateral priorities include cooperation on security issues; promoting engagement in science, technology and education; collaboration on environment and climate change; and women's empowerment.

Canada and India have bilateral relations built upon people-to-people ties and shared traditions of democracy and pluralism. India is the world's fastest growing large economy. Canada's priorities in India include cooperation on security, and exploring opportunities to expand bilateral engagement in areas related to investment, education, environment and innovation. India is an important source country for Canada in terms of immigration and students.

Two-way merchandise trade between Canada and India amounted to $9.4 billion in 2018, up from $8.4 billion the year prior. Canadian merchandise exports to India totalled $4.29 billion, while merchandise imports from India were $5.13 billion. India was Canada's 9th largest destination for merchandise exports in 2018.

Canada and India launched negotiations towards a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in November 2010. Negotiations are complex and outstanding issues will take time to resolve. Canada commenced Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement negotiations with India in 2004, and the latest round of negotiations took place in November 2017.

During his February 2018 trip to India, Prime Minister Trudeau announced $1 billion in two-way trade and investment deals that will lead to the creation of more than 5,800 Canadian jobs. The two Prime Ministers also confirmed the signature of six wide-ranging MOUs.

India is one of the world's largest pulse import market and, until September 2017, had been Canada's largest pulse export market. India's fumigation requirements, increased tariffs and quantitative restrictions have hindered access for Canadian pulse exports. This has been further exacerbated by India's most recent actions of rejecting containers of Canadian lentils over the detection of weed seeds that do not appear on India's quarantine weed seed list. Canada is working with India to address the situation, and press India to complete their evaluation of Canada's systems approach as soon as possible.

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