B.C. pursues new markets in India as diplomacy takes a back seat to trade

B.C. Premier David Eby boarded a flight for India on Friday, embarking on a trade mission to a country that only recently was in a serious diplomatic dispute with Canada.

As far as trade missions go, this trip is a no-frills excursion. There are no industry delegates tagging along, and no ribbon-cutting photo ops planned. The Premier’s entourage includes his Minister of Jobs and Economic Growth, Ravi Kahlon, and a few staff members.

But, just as Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading to China on Jan. 13 to pursue new economic opportunities, Canadian leaders are being pragmatic about their trading partners in light of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and sovereignty threats.

Canada-India relations suffered a major rupture in September, 2023, when then-prime minister Justin Trudeau accused India of playing a role in the June, 2023, murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a temple in Surrey, B.C. India has denied the allegation.

That fissure has only started to heal. After a long vacancy, Canada filled its top diplomatic post in India last August.

‘Prime conspirator’ accused of B.C. extortion-linked shootings arrested in India, police say

India silent on how Canada’s terrorist listing of Bishnoi gang will affect warming ties

Similarly, Mr. Carney is seeking to patch up ties with Beijing after a severe diplomatic rupture and years of Canada barring state-owned Chinese companies from investing or operating here.

Mr. Eby acknowledged this week there will be British Columbians who do not approve of pursuing business dealings with India while questions of Mr. Nijjar’s death remain. But in a time of global trade instability and growing U.S. protectionism, he said his first duty is to economic opportunity.

Speaking to reporters ahead of his departure, Mr. Eby said the diplomatic row with India is being handled at the federal level, and the courts will determine what happened to Mr. Nijjar. (Four men have been charged with first‑degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. The case is still in the pretrial stages.)

“Our proper role as a subnational government is to ensure we’re looking after British Columbia, and in a moment of opportunity and warming relations with India, to ensure that we’re benefiting from that, delivering jobs for British Columbians, and particularly in sectors that have been particularly hard hit by Trump tariffs, like the softwood industry,” he said.

“We have challenges with the United States. We still work with the United States. We have challenges with China, we still work with China, making sure that we’re engaging these conversations and supporting British Columbians with jobs and opportunity.”

Throughout the diplomatic tensions between Canada and India, B.C. quietly maintained its trade offices in Chandigarh, New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Staffing levels haven’t changed, and Mr. Eby will visit each of those trade outposts.

B.C.’s trade ties with India today are insignificant compared with its sales to the U.S. – but those numbers are changing. In 2024 – the most recent statistics available, just 2 per cent of B.C.’s goods exports went to India, compared with 45 per cent to the United States.

The final tally for 2025 isn’t in yet but sales to the U.S. softened because of tariffs and rising softwood duties, while India has been on a growth trajectory. Since 2014, B.C.’s goods exports to India more than doubled, to $1.3-billion, an increase driven largely by the energy sector. India is also the fastest growing services export market for B.C. in all of Asia.

Mr. Eby said the objective of his latest trade mission is relationship-building, rather than signing new deals.

“There is a window of opportunity for British Columbia, which is the leading province in Canada in terms of trade with India, to deepen our relationship and expand the trade that we already do with a country that is going to be the third-largest economy in the world.”

Kim Haakstad, president and CEO of the BC Council of Forest Industries, says her sector doesn’t sell much wood to India now, but members are very keen on Mr. Eby’s venture.

“It’s an emerging market,” she said in an interview. “It’s not the same as China, Japan or South Korea – we are not sending big loads of lumber there. But as the country grows, there is rising demand for quality products with the growing middle class.”

The U.S. has been an important buyer of B.C. softwood in part because of its proximity and integrated shipping routes. But in 2025, U.S. import taxes on softwood lumber rose to 45.16 per cent on most Canadian producers, and that has taken a toll on sales, Ms. Haakstad said.

To ship wood to India means 40 to 60 days at sea, on a route that stretches more than 10,000 nautical miles from the Port of Vancouver to Nhava Sheva near Mumbai, India’s largest container port.

But it can take 50 to 60 days to move B.C. lumber to the southeast of the United States overland.

Ms. Haakstad said B.C. wood producers have figured out cost-effective shipping to Britain as they look to tap new customers. “If we can get it to the U.K., we can get it to India.”

Mr. Kahlon, the Jobs Minister, said B.C. will be touting energy, critical minerals, life sciences and agricultural technology during their stops.

“Our goals are clear. It’ll be to diversify beyond the U.S., double our exports and grow sectors like tech and life sciences, and India is an important part of that vision,” he said.