Canada envoy says the India trade deal can be ready before Modi's December visit

Canadian High Commissioner Christopher Cooter said the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with India should be ready by the end of 2026, in time for a visit by Narendra Modi to Canada in December. He spoke at The Hindu Mind in New Delhi. “I’m pretty confident the trade deal will be agreed to by the end of the year,” he said.

“Previously, we discussed for 12 years, and we got no trade agreement. This time, we started in March 2026. We’ve probably done more in these six months than we did in those 12 years.” He compared the compressed timetable to a pregnancy. “Our hope is that we get there by the time of a Modi visit to Canada, which would mean achieving this in about nine months since March. That’s like a child. We hope this is a really nice baby.”

The March restart followed Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Mumbai and New Delhi from 27 February to 2 March, the first bilateral trip to India by a Canadian prime minister since 2018. Carney and Modi issued a joint statement, welcomed five memorandums, and said they would finish CEPA this year. They also set a target of more than doubling two-way trade to $70 billion by 2030. Cooter, at The Hindu event, used the same $70 billion horizon and added that investment between the two countries could, in time, scale toward $1 trillion if tax and regulatory friction falls.

The present trade is small. The energy file is not

Goods trade is modest. Canadian figures put exports to India near $3.9 billion, led by vegetables, mineral fuels and wood pulp, and imports from India near $9.7 billion, led by gems, machinery and medicines. Cooter called the goods line small and the investment line stronger. He said Ottawa is talking to the Union Finance Ministry about tax and regulatory points that slow Canadian capital.

Energy is the piece with signed paper. In March the two governments announced a strategic energy partnership covering LNG, LPG, uranium, solar and hydrogen. India and Saskatoon-based Cameco agreed a $2.6 billion contract for nearly 22 million pounds of uranium from 2027 to 2035. Two further memorandums cover critical minerals. That package is already larger than a year of lentils and pulp.

Piyush Goyal led what Ottawa called the largest Indian trade delegation ever sent to Canada, in May. The two sides then used the G7 meeting in June to repeat the year-end CEPA pledge. Cooter said a reciprocal visit by Canada’s trade minister is under discussion for later this year.

Why the 12-year freeze broke

Talks died in the last decade over dairy, visas, and then a political rupture over the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and the expulsion of diplomats. Carney’s March trip was the formal thaw. Cooter has since called the present moment the best in years for doing business. That is an envoy’s job. The test is whether dairy, professional mobility and data rules that sank earlier rounds can be parked, fudged or traded away before December.

Modi has not yet locked dates for the Canada visit. Both sides said in June they would work through diplomatic channels. Cooter’s line is that the text should be ready when the prime minister lands. If it is not, the visit becomes another photo with a promise attached. If it is, CEPA becomes the first completed major trade text of the Carney-Modi reset.

Nine months is fast for a comprehensive deal between two G20 economies that failed for twelve years. The speed is the story Cooter wanted in print. The remaining argument is over cheese, people and tax, and those files have ended Indian trade talks before.