Chinese Imports in India grew 6 times in a decade

The Dollar Business Bureau

China’s import to India has jumped six folds from $10.87 billion in 2005-06 to $61.71 billion in 2015-16.

In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Nirmala Sitharaman said that the increasing imports can be mainly attributed to the fact that China is able to provide manufactured items to India at competitive prices due to many reasons.

She said that imports from China to India increased to $61.71 billion in 2015-16 from $10.87 billion in 2005-06.

The imports from China in 2014-15 were $60.4 billion and during 2013-14 were $51 billion.

A majority of the products that are imported from China include drug intermediates, computer hardware, electrical machinery, consumer electronics, steel and iron.

Sitharaman added that the imports from China cater to the growing demand in India for goods including component and pharmaceutical ingredients that are needed in the Indian manufacturing sector.

However, during the year 2014-15, India’s pharmaceutical export to China increased by 17.3 percent.  

Talking about the pharmaceutical sectors, Sitharaman said that Indian companies have been facing certain obstruction in getting access to the pharmaceutical market of China.

The reason for these obstructions were due to the regulatory process in the registration of drugs, the complication in registration and testing of samples and in the detail clinical trial data. All these issues can prolong the process of drug registration.

Sitharaman added that India has been talking about this issue with China.