Canada trade talks include movement of professionals

The mobility of professionals is part of ongoing negotiations between India and Canada for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) that the two sides are hoping to finalise by the end of the year, people familiar with the matter said.

Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu presents a memento to Canada's Minister of International Trade Maninder Sidhu during a meeting. (@RamMNK X)The two sides will hold the sixth round of negotiations for the trade deal this week, and economic ties and cooperation in key areas such as critical minerals and energy have been spurred by a turnaround in the overall relationship since Mark Carney was elected Canada’s PM in March last year.

The two countries are looking to finalise talks on the trade deal before Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Canada during December 11-12. The mobility of professionals is among the items on the agenda, five people familiar with the negotiations said.

One of them said mobility is being considered under the services chapter of the proposed trade deal, specially to enable businesses investing in either country to bring in temporary workers. Discussions have centered around the movement of skilled workers under a quota system for the numbers to be admitted annually, another person said.

Mobility of professionals and students has emerged as a focus area for India in recent years, and migration and mobility partnerships have been concluded with close to 30 countries, most of them in Europe. India and Canada also held their maiden migration and mobility dialogue in New Delhi on October 26.

A readout from the Indian side emphasised the “natural complementarity between India’s young and skilled workforce and Canada’s demographic and labour market trends, which makes well-managed mobility the need of the hour”.

The discussions focused on mobility of students, professionals, skilled workers and business visitors, and cooperation on migration management. Canada currently hosts one of the largest Indian diaspora communities, with more than 1.8 million Canadians of Indian origin and an estimated one million non-resident Indians.

While the Canadian side has sought quotas for its export of pulses and lentils, the Indian side has indicated that it prefers to handle this issue through preferential tariff rates or tariff-relieved access for these commodities, on the lines of the arrangements under the India-Australia economic cooperation and trade agreement, the people said.

Canada is second only to Australia as a supplier of pulses to India. India’s imports of pulses in the first quarter of 2026 were worth about $6.51 billion, with Canada accounting for $1.01 billion or 15.56% of the total.

Canada’s top pulses exported to India are lentils, yellow peas and chickpeas. The two sides have also established a Pulse Protein Centre of Excellence in India. India and Canada are now focused on completing the trade negotiations by the end of November, with officials from both sides expected to meet twice to deal with outstanding issues as items that have already been decided upon undergo legal scrubbing, the people said.

Canada’s international trade minister Maninder Sidhu, who is in India for the sixth round of negotiations on the trade deal and met commerce minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday, told a business meet in Visakhapatnam on Thursday that the two sides are hoping to conclude the talks by the time of Modi’s visit.

He said Canada is looking to do more with India in fields such as energy, especially LNG, nuclear power, resilient supply chains, fertilisers and investments by Canadian pension funds. “Our goal is to double bilateral trade to $70 billion by 2030.

A free trade agreement will help us get there faster,” Sindhu said on social media. Total trade in goods between India and Canada was worth Canadian $13.55 billion in 2025, with Indian exports accounting for Canadian $9.68 billion, while bilateral trade in services was worth Canadian $19.62 billion, with India’s exports pegged at Canadian $4.45 billion.

Investments from Canada into India are estimated at more than Canadian $100 billion, and more than 600 Canadian companies have a presence in India. Anirudh Bhattacharya is a Toronto-based commentator on North American issues, and an author.

He has also worked as a journalist in New Delhi and New York spanning print, television and digital media. He tweets as @anirudhb.Read More Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015.

He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations.

He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country.

He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack.

As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest.

He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More