India, Canada aims $20bn trade in 5yrs

New Delhi: India and Canada have decided to work towards $20-billion aim of trade in goods and services within five years. The target was set by the India-Canada CEOs Roundtable conducted at its first meeting in New Delhi last March, by seizing the opportunity of current buoyant trends in goods and services trade, the Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Mr Kamal Nath. Last February, the Aditya Birla group company Hindalco purchased Novelis for around $6 billion. In April, the Essar Group bought Algoma Steel for $1.7 billion. The Minister said this trend is likely to remain and that more Canadian companies will infuse in India, to exploit the synergies that exist between the two sides. Earlier, Mr Nath, on an official visit to Canada from June 16 to 18, had bilateral meetings with Mr David Emerson, Minister of International Trade, Canada, and Mr Dalton McGunity, Premier of Ontario, besides bilateral negotiations with the Premier of Quebec. India and Canada have also concluded talks for a bilateral investment protection agreement to give an impetus to the two-way investments.