OTTAWA – India’s High Commissioner to Canada Dinesh K. Patnaik says he is “confident” a trade deal between Canada and India will be reached before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Canada in December. “We have got most of it worked out. A few nicks here and there. Some legal scrubbing. But I’m extremely confident that we will be able to achieve (a deal) much before the prime minister’s visit,” Patnaik said in an exclusive interview with CTV Question Period airing Sunday. Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed earlier this month that Modi will visit Canada Dec. 11 and 12 before the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Miami. Last November, the two leaders committed to reviving trade negotiations with the goal of working towards a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). Since then, Carney visited India in March, and most recently, International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand led a nearly 300-delegate trade mission to India in October. Both countries are aiming to double bilateral trade to $70 billion annually by 2030. In 2025, two-way goods and services trade between Canada and India reached $30.4 billion. Pointing to last November’s meeting between Carney and Modi at the G20 in Johannesburg and the agreement to reach a deal in one year, Patnaik says, “I think we’ll be able to meet the deadline.” Trade talks between Canada and India were abruptly put on pause back in 2023 just weeks before former prime minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” that agents of the Indian government were involved in the assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C. That accusation then led to years of tension between the two countries, but the tone has shifted as Carney seeks to diversify trade away from the United States. India, meanwhile, has continued to deny any involvement. Will India offer tariff reductions? India has maintained a high tariff wall on agricultural imports in order, the government says, to protect its own domestic farming sector. A 10 per cent levy is currently imposed on Canadian lentils, while a 30 per cent tariff on yellow peas took effect last November. Asked by host Vassy Kapelos whether there will be movement on those tariffs as part of the deal, Patnaik said India “will require a lot of lentils and pulses” as India’s population grows. “We will always see Canada as a partner from where we can get more of lentils and pulses. And I think we will have a deal,” he said. Pressed if tariffs will be reduced or eliminated, India’s envoy said the two countries are working on a tariff rate quota. “What we are trying to work out is some sort of a tariff rate quota. There is a certain quota which Canada can sell every year, which will be without tariffs,” Patnaik said. “And as it grows beyond that quota, there will be tariffs.” Patnaik also described a quota system as a way to ensure stability. “What we are looking at is how can we make the base stable so that farmers in Canada can predict what is going to happen next year and produce accordingly,” Patnaik said. “But what I’ve been telling farmers here, our consumption is on the up. We will consume much more in the future. So even if one year there is tariffs and one year there is not, in the long run, we are going to be a huge consumer of food grains from Canada.” Saskatchewan is Canada’s largest provincial exporter to India, driven by shipments of agricultural products and resources like potash, lentils, and dry peas. You can watch India High Commissioner Dinesh K. Patnaik’s exclusive interview on CTV Question Period Sunday at 11 a.m. ET.
