Protectionism against Chinese companies and boycotting goods from the East Asian country on the pretext of political issues will not help bridge the yawning Sino-India trade deficit, instead only damage bilateral ties, state media said on Friday.
Besides allowing free flow of Chinese goods into its huge market, India should focus on expanding and improving industrial infrastructure to address the issue of imbalance in trade, the Global Times said in two separate write-ups on bilateral economic ties between the two countries.
Quoting Chinese government figures, one GT article said: “Data from China’s General Administration of Customs showed Thursday that India in September exported goods worth $922 million to China while importing goods worth $5.4 billion from China.”
It added: “The major imports from China include electronic components, telecom instruments, chemicals and pharmaceutical products, while India’s major exports to China include ore, plastics and cotton.”
According to mid-year statistics from India, bilateral trade was $70.73 billion in 2015-16, down from $72.34 billion in the previous fiscal. The deficit with China was around $52.68 billion in 2015-16, from $48.48 billion in the previous fiscal, figures quoted in Parliament showed. China’s investment in India , according to Chinese state media , soared to around $ 870 million in 2015, six times what it was in 2014.
India’s commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Parliament in August: “Increasing trade deficit with China can be attributed to the relative demand for imports in India and China for each other’s goods.”
But instead of attempting to attract Chinese investment, there’s been a call to boycott Chinese goods from some quarters in India. The newspaper said there had been 322 anti-dumping cases in India in March of which 177 cases involved Chinese products.
“Besides, a social media campaign urging people to refrain from buying China-made products have recently been building in India. Such moves will not help contribute to reducing India’s trade deficit, but could damage bilateral ties instead.”
