The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) have agreed to set up a taskforce to study the feasibility of an India-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

The decision was taken at a second meeting of the India-Canada CEOs Forum at Montreal , the CII said in a communiqué on June 19, 2007.

The Foreign Investment Protection Agreement (FIFA) that is being negotiated between India and Canada is the first step towards an FTA between the two countries. The two sides have set a target of $ 20 billion in bilateral trade and $ 5 billion in bilateral investment flows, the CII said.

Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath told the CEOs that India and Canada must seize this opportunity to significantly increase two-way trade and investment flows.

He suggested that alongside the target of $ 10 billion each, annually, in bilateral goods and services trade to be achieved in five years, India and Canada should work to achieve $ 5 billion a year in bilateral investment flows by 2012.

June 22, 2007