The Governor General of Canada David Johnston visited India on February 22nd, the first such visit by a Canadian Governor General since the year 1998. This visit follows Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to New Delhi in 2012 and should help in bridging the vast distances that exist in most fora of co-operation between the two governments. The focus of the visit was entrepreneurship and innovation and rightly so as trade figures between the two nations have been very low till date. According to Indian government figures, Canada does not figure among India’s top 25 trading partners, and trade between the two countries stood at a meagre $4.7 billion for the year ending 2013.
Bridging the gap between Canada and India requires serious work as talks on a “closer economic partnership” have been stalled for some time now, and a foreign investment promotion and protection treaty remains unfinished. India’s impending elections resulting in political uncertainty has made progress difficult, even as the need for clarity on foreign investment is greater than ever.
New Delhi needs to focus its attention on increasing trade relations with Canada as there exists massive potential for cooperation in the fields of conventional and unconventional energy. There have been a few positive developments in the energy sector with the first shipment of oil from the Canadian province of Alberta making its way to India earlier this week. Recently Indian Oil announced its purchase of a stake in the shale and liquefied natural gas interests of Petronas, the energy gas giant located in western Canada.
More significant is the need for progress in sourcing Canada’s uranium reserves for feeding India’s ambitious civil nuclear programme that envisages 30,000 MW of nuclear power by 2030. Canada has one of the biggest uranium reserves in the world and it had stopped all nuclear commerce with India after India used the Canadian supplied heavy water reactor for developing weapon’s grade plutonium.
Trade between India and Canada face several impediments, not the least of which is New Delhi’s excessive focus on Canada’s southern neighbor, the U.S. There have also been longstanding complaints on both sides about the difficulty in getting visas, for business travelers and temporary foreign workers, especially in Canada.
A small step in the right direction of increasing people to people contact was the two-year $13 million program announced by Canada to fund summer research stints for top Indian and Canadian students. An audio-visual co-production treaty was also announced during the Governor General’s visit which will now make it easier for Indian filmmakers to shoot in Canada. This deal follows the considerable revenue generated by Indian feature films at the Canadian box office in 2013, which stood at $12.5 million, up 11% from the previous year.
There has also been progress in the field of agriculture as the International Development Research Centre, headquartered in Ottawa, is funding research to re-introduce small millets into the farming and eating habits of the country. India also imports close to three million tons of pulses from Saskatchewan, a province in the middle of the Canadian landscape.
As the Governor General said in his speech at IIT-Mumbai, the most important factor in a successful partnership is a good pair of shoes. He has worn down at least one pair during his mission; others will now have to follow in his footsteps.
Yuen Pau Woo is President and CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. He was a member of the Governor General’s accompanying delegation.
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