India concerned over China's actions to stall exports
Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has pitched for a strong focus on the country’s trade with China, while expressing concern over China’s “efforts to stall India’s exports through non-tariff barriers”. On Friday, the Minister held a meeting with a parliamentary consultative committee in Goa to assess the performance of India’s foreign trade. Responding to suggestions given by the committee members, the minister said that focus was being given on sectors such as pharma/ IT/ ITES/gems & jewellery/ textiles/ fruits & vegetables/ meat exports to improve India’s exports to China. “The Commerce Minister highlighted the concern that China has been making efforts to stall India’s exports through non-tariff barriers such as phytosanitary stipulations, standardisation issues etc,” a statement from the ministry said. She said that the concern was raised in a meeting with the Chinese Trade Minister on the sidelines of G-20 meet. “China was apprised of those action points where the Chinese governmentt has accepted India’s stand but has not implemented them,” the statement said. At present, the bilateral trade between India and China is more than $70 billion. But Indian policy makers are more concerned about the rising trade deficit with its neighbouring country. During the last financial year, India’s trade deficit with China was $48.43 billion, which was 34% higher from $36.21 billion recorded in 2013-14. Keeping a check on the flow of Chinese products into Indian markets has become a major challenge for the authourities as Indian traders often complaint about dumping from China. Major sectors that face competition from Chinese imports are steel, tyre and rubber items. Last month, the government has launched a crackdown on the import of fake fire crackers from China and seized smuggled crackers worth over Rs.2 crore.
November 07, 2015 | 3:20pm IST.
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