Canada opens trade office in Ahmedabad

Are these the first signs of a thaw in western countries’ attitude towards Narendra Modi? The United States may still be keeping its distance from Modi because of his alleged role in the communal riots of 2002, but neighbour Canada seems to be more accommodative.

On Friday, Canada opened a trade office in Ahmedabad, its eighth such office in India. The function to inaugurate the office was attended by Narendra Modi, and sharing the dais with him on the occasion was Stockwell Day, Canada’s minister of international trade. Stockwell is also the minister for the Asia-Pacific gateway.

Sources, however, conceded that, earlier, the Canadian minister had some reservations about attending the meeting. The inauguration of the office was finally held at a hotel in
the city.

Modi, who was invited as a special guest, attended the function. The event, organised by the consulate-general of Canada in association with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), was well attended by the city’s business fraternity.

Along with Canada’s existing trade offices in New Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai and Chandigarh, its new trade office in Ahmedabad will provide market intelligence and expert advice to help develop trade and investment exchanges between Canada and India.

“We fulfiled the commitment made by Canada’s prime minister Harper in April 2008, to expand Canada’s economic presence in India. With a total of eight trade offices in India, Canada has developed its most extensive trade network outside of the United States,”
said Day. 

Modi read out from a written speech in English, assuring a win-win situation for both the countries. “New ventures will be formed in future in both the regions. Oil, education and climate change are some of the promising areas of collaboration between Gujarat and Canada,” said Modi.

Emphasising the state’s concern about the environment, he said Canada could help Gujarat in developing green and clean technology. Currently, the bilateral trade between India and Canada is worth around $4.8 billion. “This new trade office will help bring us closer to our goal of doubling our two-way trade with India over the next five years to reach $10 billion annually,” said Day.

Day further said that the opening of new trade offices, and discussions on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement as well as a nuclear cooperation agreement, clearly demonstrate Canada’s commitment to strengthening its trade relations with India.

Canadian two-way merchandise trade with India reached an all time high of $4.6 billion in 2008, up 22.5% over 2007. Merchandise exports to India in 2008 totalled $2.4 billion - an impressive 35% increase over the year before - and the commercial relationship between the two countries continues to grow.