Overview
- The sixth round of CEPA talks is under way this week and ministers Maninder Sidhu and Piyush Goyal met in India to reaffirm a shared target of concluding the pact by December.
- Negotiators are working across at least 16 policy areas, including market access for goods and services, rules of origin, trade remedies, customs facilitation and the movement of professionals.
- Energy and raw materials are central to the deal with discussions covering LNG exports, an existing roughly $2.5 billion uranium supply deal, critical minerals and battery supply chains for electric vehicles.
- Canada is pitching expanded investment and trade links, noting more than $100 billion of Canadian institutional and pension‑fund investment in India and plans to scale up LNG capacity to help meet India’s rising energy needs.
- Officials plan further negotiating sessions in Ottawa next week followed by legal scrubbing and possible additional meetings before Prime Minister Modi’s mid‑December visit, a step that could strengthen supply‑chain resilience, energy security and labour mobility between the two countries.