FIPA Will Boost Canadian Investment In India

Canada’s economic and trade relations with India are expanding at a never-seen-before pace. And Canada’s Minister of International Trade François-Philippe Champagne was in India recently with an agenda to strengthen ties further. The Dollar Business caught up with him to understand how the two nations plan to intensify and boost bilateral trade.

- Aamir H. Kaki

TDB: Your visit to India is the fifth by a Canadian cabinet minister in the past seven months. What does this reflect?

François- Philippe Champagne (FPC): Both governments are making efforts to build upon our excellent relationship. Canada and India enjoy a longstanding, diverse relationship which is rooted in the shared values of democracy, peaceful pluralism, tolerance, human rights and the rule of law. We also want to expand on our economic engagement and people-to-people ties. In recent months, our relationship has been further strengthened by several high-level visits, by Canadian ministers to India and by Indian ministers to Canada. In addition, people-to-people ties play a central and dynamic role in the Canada-India partnership, particularly because of the growing community of more than 1.3 million Canadians of Indian origin and their contributions to our societies.

Canada considers India a high-priority trading partner. Bilateral trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), which have increased dramatically over the last few years, are expected to continue to do well in the coming years. Both countries are looking to conclude the bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations and ensure that the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) is inked and brought into force at the earliest.

TDB: Apart from FIPA and FTA, what else is being discussed? FPC: We had discussions regarding the Canada-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), in view of increasing bilateral trade and investment. Canada-India CEPA involves liberalisation of trade in goods and services by bringing down tariffs and investment barriers and it also has a separate chapter on investments.