India and Canada are moving swiftly towards sealing an interim free trade pact, having already exchanged goods and services market access offers that will be improved further at the next round of parleys to be held in early April.
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While the early harvest trade pact being fleshed out now will focus on 10-11 areas, the more comprehensive economic partnership agreement will cover Goods, Services, Rules of Origin as well as Labour, Environment and Digital issues, a senior Commerce Ministry official said on Wednesday.
With the United States, India is reintroducing a travel and tourism forum that will focus on promoting small restaurants and businesses, and a dialogue is also underway on standards co-operation, the official noted.
Following recent bilateral talks steered by the External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, the two countries have agreed to unveil a strategic trade dialogue that would essentially cover issues related to export controls which would be required for any technology transfer to India from the U.S.