The Quiet Corridor: The Case for Deepening India-Canada Pharmaceutical Trade

This report makes the case for deepening India-Canada trade in finished pharmaceutical products and for institutionalizing it under the CEPA negotiations now targeted for conclusion by the end of 2026.
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This report makes the case for deepening India-Canada trade in finished pharmaceutical products and for institutionalizing it under the CEPA negotiations now targeted for conclusion by the end of 2026. Canada faces rising drug expenditure, an aging population and chronic shortages, and does not manufacture low-cost generics at scale; India, the world’s third-largest pharmaceutical producer by volume, supplies exactly that capability. Compiled at HS heading 3004 from Statistics Canada microdata cross-checked against UN COMTRADE, the analysis shows Canada’s imports of finished doses from India rising roughly seventy per cent between 2020 and 2025, to US$637.6 million, making India Canada’s fourth-largest supplier. The report weighs the hard problems honestly, including the shared dependence on Chinese APIs and the uneven Indian quality record, and recommends a dedicated pharmaceutical annex within CEPA, joint upstream resilience, and regulatory cooperation on Good Manufacturing Practices. Its argument is redundancy alongside America and Europe, not replacement.

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