Talks between India and Canada on a free trade agreement (FTA) which were resumed last year after a decade have been put on hold, an Indian government official said on Monday, September 18.
Though no reason was given for calling off the negotiations, the official said that it was “for political reasons and it would be resumed once the political reasons were resolved.’
The official said that India has raised certain objections to political developments in Canada and until India's concerns were resolved the FTA talks would remain on hold.
In March 2022, the two countries had restarted talks on an FTA after a hiatus of over a decade and 12 rounds of official-level negotiations have been completed since then.
Bi-lateral trade between the two countries was estimated to have reached $8.16 billion in the fiscal year 2022-23.