In the latest page written in the government’s trade expansion book, Canada and India have agreed to open talks to liberalize trade.Trade minister Peter Van Loan is in India this week to help organize the start of talks.”Both sides expect a timely conclusion of an ambitious agreement,” said a government announcement.At a Seoul, South Korea meeting Nov. 12 during an international leaders’ economic summit, prime minister Stephen Harper and Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh shook hands on a deal to start negotiations.With more than a billion people, 250 million in the middle class, Grain Growers of Canada quickly called on politicians to support the talks and to ratify a deal if it comes to Parliament.In a news release titled “One billion good reasons for a trade deal,” GGC said it is an important agricultural market for Canada, particularly for pulse, grain and oilseed exporters.”In addition to creating opportunities for trade through the lowering of tariff lines, we are pleased to see the issue of resolving sanitary and phytosanitary trade barriers on the table,” GGC president Doug Robertson said in the statement. “The reality is any trade agreement is only as strong as your ability to enforce the intent.”According to a government study on the possible advantages of a trade deal, agriculture is one of the top four Canadian exports to India.But trade is relatively small and the trade relationship with one of the world’s fastest growing economies is just India’s 30th largest. “It appears that the India-Canada trade relationship is seriously under-traded,” said the study.The agreement with India is just one of the unfolding trade developments.Last weekend in Seoul, members of the G20 (Group of 20) leaders and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group, both including Canada, once again said they want to see a successful end to World Trade Organization talks.WTO director general Pascal Lamy saw it as an order to complete the nine-year-old negotiation next year.”In short, they provided a clear signal that they expect the Doha Development Round to be a deliverable next year,” he said in a Nov. 15 speech in Geneva.Meanwhile, the European Union has published a five-year strategy that says it will use expanded trade to pull the 26 nation union out of economic trouble.While it mentioned trade talks with Canada, the talks with Canada were not top of the priority list.The EU said increased trade through agreement at the WTO and with large countries like India top the list, although “deepening trade” with countries like Canada, the United States, China, Russia and Japan also are part of the strategy.
Canada, India agree to trade talks
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