Canada Pauses Trade Talks With India Days Before G20 Summit: What's the Reason?

'We've paused to take stock of where we are,' the Canadian government told the media on the trade deal with India.

PM Modi speaks as his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau looks on, during their joint press conference

(Photo: PTI)

Barely days before Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's scheduled visit to India for the G20 summit, the government of Canada announced on Friday that it had paused talks on a proposed trade treaty with India.

In May, India and Canada had said that they aimed to seal an Early Progress Trade Agreement agreement this year to increase trade and expand investment while setting out a mechanism to deal with disputes.

What's the Reason?

According to a report in Reuters, a Canadian official told the media, "Trade negotiations are long, complex processes. And we've paused to take stock of where we are".

India's High Commissioner to Canada, Sanjeev Kumar Verma spoke to Canadian media on a variety of issues ahead of the G20 summit.

Regarding Canada's decision to pause discussions on the trade agreement, Verma said he didn't know the reason.

“I’m not sure what the reason is. But there is an honest request from the Canadian side, and we have no reason not to accept it,” the National Post quotes Verma as having said.

According to the report, Verma said that Canada probably needed more time to better inform industry groups about the proposed deal.

“Having 10 rounds in 13 months is a huge deal...Sometimes it progressed so fast that stakeholders were not able to imbibe the outcome,” he said, adding that this is his "conjecture".

Pressure on Canadian Government

Human Rights groups in Canada have been petitioning the government to raise the issue of alleged human rights violations in India during the G20 summit.

In August, over 80 human rights and faith organisations released an open letter urging PM Trudeau to issue “a categorical public condemnation of the systematic discrimination, genocide incitement, harassment, and violence faced by religious and other minorities in India, including Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Kashmiris".

The letter urged the Trudeau government to make any trade or investment agreements with New Delhi contingent upon the "protection of vulnerable communities".

The Canadian government in its response said, that they would "continue to engage with India on issues related to security, democracy, pluralism and human rights, particularly as it presides over the G20 meetings this year".