Piyush Goyal holds trade talks with France, Canada, Saudi Arabia and South Korea

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal met his counterparts from France, Canada, Saudi Arabia and South Korea and discussed ways to deepen bilateral trade ties with the four countries. The talks covered trade and investment, free trade agreement negotiations, market access and manufacturing partnerships.

The meetings were held on Thursday on the sidelines of the G20 Trade Ministers' Meeting in Milwaukee. In posts on X, Goyal outlined the main areas discussed with each minister and said the talks focused on taking forward existing trade and economic engagements.

On France, Goyal said, "Met Mr Nicolas Forissier, Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness of France, on the margins of the G20 Trade Ministers Meeting." He said the two sides explored avenues to expand trade and investment ties, speed up the early signing of the India-EU FTA, and widen collaboration in aerospace manufacturing in India, UPI integration and joint innovation initiatives. "Look forward to welcoming him to India later this year to take our bilateral economic agenda forward," he said.

Goyal said he had a "productive meeting" with Canadian Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu and reviewed the ongoing negotiations for the India-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, or CEPA. The India-Canada CEPA was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in March to take bilateral trade to USD 50 billion by 2030. "Building on our recent meeting in Mumbai, we reaffirmed our commitment to expediting negotiations and working towards an early conclusion of the agreement," Goyal said.

On Saudi Arabia, the minister said he was delighted to meet Majid bin Abdullah Al-Kassabi, Minister of Commerce. "We discussed progress on the India-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) FTA negotiations and explored opportunities to further strengthen trade & investment ties between our two nations," Goyal said.

Goyal also met South Korean Trade Minister Park Jung-Sung. The two sides discussed upgrading the India-Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, balanced trade growth, market access for Indian agricultural, pharmaceutical and marine products, and Korean manufacturing investment in India.

The meetings with the four ministers focused on advancing trade negotiations, improving market access and expanding investment cooperation across key sectors.