October 21, 2025

India is ready and waiting, but wants Canada to make the first move to resume their free trade talks! India’s High Commissioner to Canada, Dinesh Patnaik, made it clear in a lively interview with CTV on Sunday night. “We will discuss with Canada if Canada is ready to sign a free trade deal with us, we will be more than happy to work with Canada. But it is the Canadians who paused it, it’s for the Canadians to restart it,” said Patnaik. The talks had been moving forward under the name Early Progress Trade Agreement (EPTA). But in August 2023, Canada suddenly paused the discussions. This happened just a month before tensions flared when former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said in Parliament there were "credible allegations" of Indian agents linked to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a pro-Khalistan activist, in British Columbia. Patnaik didn't shy from addressing the strain, saying, “Canada was one of our good friends. So there’s no reason why we can’t have a trade deal with Canada. But it’s up to Canada to decide what it wants.” He stressed that while the two countries' relationship is slowly resetting, fresh trade talks haven't yet started. When they do, India hopes for a bigger and better deal called a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). But can Canada be trusted as a steady supplier? Patnaik’s answer was honest: “Not yet.” He continued, “We want you to be a reliable supplier, because we don’t want a situation where extraneous factors to economic activities become a deterrent.” Interestingly, he never mentioned the pro-Khalistan separatists during the almost 14-minute interview. Reflecting on the past, Patnaik said, “India had always believed Canada can be a reliable supplier but certain events in the past made us reconsider that.” He was talking about the fall-out after the Nijjar murder in September 2023. Still, there’s hope. “I hope that we can move forward,” he said, adding, “Our work is to make sure that the economic relationship is firewalled from extraneous forces which try to derail them.” So, India is keeping the door open. The ball is in Canada’s court to bring back those sizzling trade talks and light up India-Canada relations once again.

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Tags: India-canada relations, Free trade negotiations, Dinesh patnaik, Economic partnership, Trade deal, Canada,