OTTAWA — As India’s commerce minister kicks off a visit to Canada, one of the subcontinent’s largest business associations is pushing to double the bilateral trade in goods over the next three years, and for closer ties between the two countries’ technology ecosystems. 

Top executives from several member companies of the New Delhi-based Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) will meet with Canadian counterparts and officials in Toronto over the next two days, as part of Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s visit to the country.

Delegates include Anish Shah, CEO of the Mahindra Group conglomerate; Rikant Pitti, co-founder of travel site EaseMyTrip, as well as representatives of firms in the subcontinent’s auto-parts, food, IT and pharmaceutical sectors.

“The goal is to increase trade between the two countries,” FICCI secretary general Shailesh Pathak said in an interview from Toronto on Monday. The association is targeting US$15 billion in bilateral merchandise movement in three years, up from US$6.9 billion in the 2021–22 fiscal year. (Statistics Canada data estimated two-way goods trade to be $13.6 billion in 2022).

Canadian officials hope Goyal’s meetings with Trade Minister Mary Ng this week will help advance negotiations on a bilateral early-progress trade agreement, which the two launched in March 2022. The FICCI backs a deal that can remove “pain points” in commercial activity between the two countries, Pathak said; he declined to specify what the association would like included in an agreement, citing the ongoing talks.

Pathak noted that despite the lack of a trade deal, firms from each country are already expanding in the other. For example, Toronto-headquartered Fairfax Financial’s Indian affiliate owns a major stake in the Bengaluru airport, while the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has bought up toll roads and other infrastructure projects. Meanwhile, Canada is a significant market for Mahindra’s farm-equipment unit, and automaker Ola Electric is looking to sell battery-powered scooters here, per Pathak.

Still, the FICCI would welcome bilateral agreement in areas like technology policy, Pathak said. He cited India’s unified payments interface, a government-built system that underpins bank and fintech apps on the subcontinent. In January, New Delhi extended access to non-resident Indians with domestic accounts, the first step in a play for wider international use. “This kind of technology-policy innovation tomorrow can make the lives of Canadians so much easier,” said Pathak, noting that provisions in a trade deal could allow such systems to flow between the two countries.

The Indian unit of Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service is also focusing on technology trade, with priority sectors including auto, digital industries and cleantech.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid rising tension with China, the governments of advanced economies are increasingly seeking to reorganize supply chains through geopolitically sympathetic nations. The Liberal government in particular has sought to position Canada to benefit from U.S.-led “friendshoring.”

With New Delhi hosting the G20 this year, businesses on the subcontinent are seeking similar opportunities. “It is just a fraught time in global trade,” Pathak said. “We just hope that the concept of friendshoring that all of us are talking about in the Indo-Pacific will benefit North America as well as India.” The U.S., Canada and India already share good diplomatic and business relationships, he said.