Ficci paper on Indian-Canadian economic partnership

NEW DELHI: Canada, the only country in the Americas with which India is negotiating a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, provides excellent investment opportunities for Indian companies in services sectors, as per a paper released by Ficci on the economic partnership between the two countries.

The paper was released on the eve of a 60-member FICCI delegation led by its president Harch C Mariwala visiting Toronto that is hosting the FICCI-IIFA Global Business Forum.

"The best opportunities for Indian companies in the Canadian market are clustered around the services sectors like IT & ITES, entertainment, energy & natural resources and professional services," said Rajiv Kumar secretary general Ficci.

As per the paper, the CEPA, currently under negotiation would need to address issues of non-tariff barriers, liberalization of trade in services, and regulatory issues. It also stressed on need of facilitating the legitimate movement of professionals and elimination of tariffs in some agriculture, dairy and textile products where tariff peaks remain.

Indians businesses will be benefited by reduction of non-tariff barriers such as technical, sanitary and other standards; trade facilitation, which simplifies the movement of goods and services across borders and especially the movement of people, which is important for India's competitive services sector.

"Presently, Indian Greenfield and M&A investments into Canada have already outstripped Canadian investments into India," the Ficci paper stated.