Federal Liberal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi is on a trip to India for a fresh trade promotion, He said a free-trade agreement with India “is a high priority for their government.”

But as stated, it was clear that any free trade with India still remains a long way off.

Under the Conservative government, which was led by Stephan Harper the talks began with fanfare, but the talks slowed down soon after the officials haggled over the investor protection and thorny issues, such as access for temporary workers, skilled workers and visitors from India to Canada.

The talks continued at turtle pace despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s mandate letter to his former international trade minister Chrystia Freel and for settling the development of a targeted strategy to promote trade and investment with emerging markets, particularly with attention on China and India.

In an interview, Sohi said that he believes with this mandate Canada and India trade deal is possible.

In his speech to a massive international trade conference called Vibrant Gujurat, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the audience, he said that two-way trade in 2015 and 2016 between the Canada and India grew by nearly 30 percent, which was a “remarkable achievement in the context of ongoing economic uncertainty all over the world.”

He also said the Canadian government is looking forward to see it increase even further: “Canada’s trade with India is not as much as high, we would like to see.”

The promise of a bigger market in India for Canadian exports beckons.

Sohi reminded the audience that more than ‘one thousand’ Canadian companies and educational institutions will be doing business in or with India.

Stephen Harper met Narendra Modi several times as prime minister and hosted PM Modi in Ottawa on April 2015 on his first visit of as an Indian leader to Canada in 40 years — Trudeau has also met PM Modi— trade talks remain stalled at the officials’ level.

Indian media had reported that the Canadian government had instructed their officials to turn down from free trade talks, to focus on broader Trans Pacific Partnership deal, of which India is not a part.

Justin Trudeau’s government had denied all the reports.

Sohi said that Justin Trudeau will be visiting India soon, but he does not know, what the dates will be.

An official in Trudeau’s PMO said it definitely will not be in March but would not confirm a date.

AMandeep