00:00India-Canada trade deal to be a reality soon.
00:03Prime Minister Modi is expected in Canada for a historic trade pact.
00:06India-Canada trade deal is likely by December.
00:10So, were the country's IAG-20 summit deadline to finalise the trade pact?
00:14$70 billion push in bilateral trade.
00:17Canada looks to India to diversify beyond the US market.
00:21So, from strain in ties to this landmark deal,
00:24the Niger death hostility is history now.
00:27Roadmap for India and Canada, defence and talent mobility.
00:31Nine major trade pacts for India since 2021.
00:34Deal with New Zealand, European Union, UK, UAE, Australia have already been done.
00:40And now what is on the cards is a deal with Canada.
00:45We are making good progress in our trade negotiations with India.
00:49It is an exceptionally important relationship on many, many levels.
00:56People-to-people levels, security levels, and also trade and economic.
01:01Our commitment to each other.
01:05Prime Minister Modi and myself, last year at the G20,
01:09was to look to conclude negotiations by the G20 this year.
01:15G20, from memory, is the middle of December, 14th, 15th of December.
01:20I believe that India just confirmed that the Prime Minister will be visiting Canada around that time.
01:30The precise date isn't out, but I very much look forward to hosting him.
01:35And we're now being joined by Daniel Boardman from Toronto.
01:41He's a journalist.
01:42He's now joining us on the story.
01:44Daniel, from strained ties between India and Canada to this new economic chapter that is on the cards,
01:52how do you look at it?
01:54Well, I think it's definitely a big positive upswing from where we were, let's say, two years ago,
02:00where we were kind of at each other's throats over, again, as you mentioned, the Nidger file,
02:05which has been mostly dealt with.
02:07And even the Calistanis in Canada have sort of removed Nidger's picture from all their different posters and whatever,
02:13and sort of gotten off that issue.
02:15So it's very good.
02:16This has been a focus of Mark Carney's tenure.
02:18I mean, Mark Carney is sort of run as the anti-American candidate, a lot of Canadians are,
02:23because Trump threatened to annex the country and then rip up the trade deal,
02:27which was a stupid deal made by stupid people, which, again, was the Trump administration 1.0 that made this
02:35deal.
02:35So now we've gotten rid of the stupid Trump deal because we're going to get an even better Trump deal.
02:39So this is what Canada's been facing.
02:41And Mark Carney kind of got off on the thing where, like, we need to diversify the markets.
02:45So this is a big push.
02:46It sells very well to Canada.
02:47Now, I'm a bit more of a realist on the grander economic strategy of this.
02:53You do need diversified markets.
02:55But America is literally the only country that borders Canada with 300 million people
03:00and the largest consumer market in the world.
03:02So getting off America is a bit of a pipe dream.
03:07But having stronger relations with other countries is very good, especially India.
03:13India has always been a country that it just made no sense to fight with.
03:17Canada and India just doing standard trade makes tons of sense.
03:22India is a democracy.
03:23Canada is a democracy.
03:24Canada has immense energy resources.
03:26India desperately needs energy resources.
03:29Uranium Canada has.
03:30India needs.
03:32So a lot of it is Canada wants this, but a lot of it's kept sort of in the ground
03:38by Canada's own internal regulations.
03:40So Mark Carney's real test, if he wants to get these resources to market, isn't that he can sign deals
03:46with Europeans or Indians.
03:47There will be a deal signed.
03:48Everyone will celebrate.
03:49And that's a good thing.
03:50The real test is how much of that can we fulfill?
03:52Because if we promise India $70 billion worth of oil and $45 billion worth of resources over 10 years in
04:00exchange for whatever.
04:01Well, if that can't come out of the ground, if there is no oil and there is no resources, kind
04:05of like what happened with our deal with the UAE, where we just couldn't get permits to build, then the
04:10whole thing falls apart.
04:11So the real question in Canada is, I do think this will get done.
04:14There's huge will on both sides.
04:15India, God bless them.
04:17They love having an economy that works.
04:19One of the few countries right now where the civilians of the country actually appreciate, you know, some basic economic
04:25understanding.
04:26Daniel, how important it is for Canada to have this greater access to the Indian markets?
04:32How significant it is for the Canadian businesses?
04:37Well, I think it's hugely significant.
04:38I mean, piercing the Indian market is a very, very important goal, I think, for both India and the West.
04:44And there's challenges on both sides.
04:46As someone who's sort of been and lived on both sides of the border, I mean, India has sort of
04:50insane protectionist and overly bureaucratic system that's left over from the old socialist days that still needs to be worked
04:59through in order to get products in.
05:02And again, bridging a lot of the cultural divides and a lot of, you know, I get Canada's in its
05:08own problems that it's discussed with its resource extraction and its sort of woke leftism stopping that, so to speak.
05:14And India has a very cumbersome bureaucracy that's very difficult to penetrate and get into market.
05:22But getting Canadian goods into market would be very, very important for Canadians and for Indians.
05:26I mean, listen, we have energy and resources.
05:28The more supply, right, the lower the price goes, the more people that can get it.
05:34And India is a country of 1.5 billion people.
05:37There's a lot of people on the margins that just a few cents off energy, a few more barrels here,
05:42a few more this and that can have massive effects down to the United.
05:45So it makes sense for both sides to trade instead of fighting over cocked up nonsense, as I would put
05:52the last couple of years.
05:53But all signs are looking good.
05:56But there's two very serious hurdles on the Canadian side and on the Indian side that I would love to
06:01see brought down for the prosperity of both people.
06:05Daniel, one last question.
06:06Has Canada moved on from the whole Niger issue on which there was a war of words and there were
06:12some allegations that Canada was leveling against India time and again?
06:16Has Canada moved on from that entire issue?
06:19Kind of.
06:20Like, it depends.
06:21He has to know who you ask.
06:22I would say the answer is closer to yes than it is no, right?
06:27A lot of this was very top down.
06:29So Canada is very top down, especially from the Liberals.
06:32So the Liberals declared that India was evil under Justin Trudeau and, you know, mass murdering all of our favorite
06:39terrorists.
06:40And then Carney became prime minister.
06:43They switched.
06:44And now we kind of threw that under the rug.
06:47And again, the Niger deal wasn't as big in Canada.
06:52There's just a few stories from the Canadian media every now and then about how evil the Indian government is
06:56or Hindutva, Hindu nationalism, whatever, whatever, and how it's a danger to the world.
07:01But that's just the general trickle.
07:05The Canadians have sort of forgotten.
07:07It was never that big of a sticking issue here.
07:09A lot of Canadians didn't even understand what was going on between India and Canada.
07:12Because our media is very centralized and very, I mean, funded by the Liberals.
07:17So they never really explain too well any scandals that have to do with the ruling party.
07:22All right, Daniel Boardman, thank you so much for joining us on the broadcast on India today.
07:26So that's the version from a Canadian journalist on the deal that is likely to be signed between India and
07:33Canada.
07:34There is a reset in ties that is also on the cards.
07:37So from strained ties to having a trade deal, that's how far both the countries have come.
07:43And as he also mentioned that Canada has almost moved on from the Niger issue.
07:48And there's a new ray of hope, there's a fresh ray of hope in the ties between the two countries.
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