The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) have agreed to set up a task force to study the feasibility of India-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) at the second meeting of the India-Canada CEOs Forum held in Montreal, a press release issued by the CII.
The Foreign Investment Protection Agreement (FIFA) that is being negotiated between India and Canada is the first step towards the FTA between the two countries. The two sides have set a target of $ 20 billion bilateral trade and $ 5 billion bilateral investment flow, the release said.
Mr Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce & Industry, who addressed the Forum along with the Prime Minister of Quebec Mr. Jean Charest and Minister for International Trade Canada, Mr David Emerson, told the CEOs that India and Canada must seize this opportunity to significantly increase two-way trade and investment flows and suggested that alongside the target of US $ 10 billion each annually in bilateral goods and services trade to be achieved in five years, India and Canada should work to achieve US $ 5 billion a year in bilateral investment flows by 2012.
He also expressed the hope that the completion of the Doha Round of WTO negotiations would go a long way in liberalising and enhancing trade and investment flows between the two countries, the release said.
Referring to the economic scenario in India, Mr. Kamal Nath informed the Canadian CEOs that the Indian economy had grown by 9% and the aim was to take this growth to 10% in the next couple of years.
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