Visiting Canada next month to speed up FTA negotiations: Goyal

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said he will visit Canada next month to speed up negotiations for the proposed free trade agreement FTA. Talking about other trade pacts, the minister said negotiations are going slow, with the six-nation bloc of Middle Eastern nations and the Gulf Cooperation Council GCC due to the crisis in the region.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said he will visit Canada next month to speed up negotiations for the proposed free trade agreement (FTA). On March 2, India and Canada launched negotiations for the agreement with an aim to finalise the pact soon. The pact is officially known as the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). ''I will be going next month to speed up the (FTA) negotiations with Canada,'' he said here. Talking about other trade pacts, the minister said negotiations are going slow, with the six-nation bloc of Middle Eastern nations and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) due to the crisis in the region. ''FTA discussions are going on with Chile...(Chilean) The minister will be here on May 12. Talks are on with Peru, with GCC... a little bit of pause because of the West Asia war. We will open the other four markets also, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait,'' he added. In February, India and the GCC started negotiations for a proposed free trade agreement. GCC is India's largest trading partner bloc, with bilateral trade reaching USD 178.56 billion (exports worth USD 56.87 billion and imports valued at USD 121.68 billion) in 2024-25, accounting for 15.42 per cent of India's global trade. The grouping members are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. India has already implemented a free trade pact with the UAE in May 2022. India and Oman also signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in Muscat on December 18, 2025. ''We are also talking to Eurasia, SACU (South Africa Customs Union), upgrading PTA (preferential trade agreement) with Brazil, and other Mercosur countries,'' Goyal said. The Mercosur bloc includes Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.