New Delhi, March 3 -- India and Canada on Monday signed fresh terms of reference (ToR) for a free trade agreement and formally relaunched negotiations, two-and-a-half years after talks were abruptly halted following then prime minister Justin Trudeau's allegation that Indian agents were involved in the killing of a Khalistani terrorist in Canada. "India and Canada launched negotiations for the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) today in New Delhi and decided to finalise it soon," a commerce ministry's statement said. The ToR was signed by Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal and Canadian minister of international trade Maninder Sidhu in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney at Hyderabad House in New Delhi. Both India and Canada aim to conclude a mutually beneficial CEPA at the earliest. "PM Carney and I agreed on the need to further deepen economic linkages. We want to take bilateral trade to $50 billion by 2030," Modi said in a post on X. According to official data, bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $8.66 billion in 2024-25 with India's exports to Canada at $4.22 billion and imports of $4.44 billion. Carney said it is the expansion of a valued partnership with new ambition, focus and foresight -- a partnership between two confident countries charting own course for the future. "Canada and India are ambitious nations on confident missions to build and transform our economies. We will move faster, build bigger, and deliver more prosperity for our peoples, by working in partnership," he said in a post on X. The India-Canada FTA talks, halted abruptly in September 2023, moved towards revival after Narendra Modi congratulated Mark Carney on April 29, 2025, on his election as Canada's PM. On May 25, external affairs minister S Jaishankar and Canadian foreign minister Anita Anand discussed the future of the ties over phone. In September 2023, when India suspended free-trade talks with Canada, the two countries were negotiating an interim Indo-Canada Early Progress Trade Agreement (EPTA), which would have finally culminated in a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) or a wide-ranging FTA. But the two on Monday decided to sign new terms of reference for negotiations. "The ToR of negotiations will provide format, frequency, and approach to India-Canada CEPA negotiations. It will serve as a guide to facilitate negotiations in order to conclude an ambitious, balanced and mutually beneficial Comprehensive Economic and Partnership Agreement (CEPA)," the statement issued on Monday said. The work on ToR started as follow up to the leaders' statement during their bilateral meeting on the margins of the G7 meeting in Kananaskis, Canada in October 2025. The negotiations would cover trade in goods, services and other mutually agreed policy areas, the statement said. "The India-Canada CEPA holds significant potential to unlock and expand bilateral trade," it said. Key exports from India to Canada include drugs and pharmaceuticals, iron and steel, seafood, cotton garments, electronic goods and chemicals among others. Key imports of India from Canada include pulses, pearls and semi-precious stones, coal, fertilizer, paper and petroleum crude. Key sectors of India's services exports to Canada include telecommunications, computer and information services, and other business services. These sectors hold significant future growth potential and are expected to expand further following the conclusion of the CEPA, it said....