India pushes renewed trade talks in aftermath of Canada-China tensions

Canada and India are quietly setting the stage to reboot formal free-trade talks as the Trudeau government seeks economic alternatives to China following the dispute over the Meng Wanzhou-two Michaels affair.

Trade negotiators from both countries have held four "consultative meetings" in the last year via video, and the most recent one in October saw the two sides trade preliminary proposals, said Anshuman Gaur, India's deputy high commissioner to Canada.

"They talked about the approaches and the possible path forward," he said in an interview this past week.

The renewed engagement is a result of India's aggressive new trade policy, dubbed "early harvest," which has seen the country attempt to make incremental steps toward full-scale free-trade deals with Britain, the European Union, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and now Canada...

This was excerpted from the 28 November 2021 edition of CBC News.