Mumbai: Tension at border has impacted broader relationship with China, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said today, and raised apprehensions over the bilateral trade which remains unbalanced with a large trade balance in favour of China.
Shringla pointed out that the trade deficit with China for the nine months period, which stood at US$ 47 billion, was the largest trade deficit that India had with any country. He further mentioned that the imbalance “has continuously been widening”.
He said India has highlighted that widening deficit and increase in trade barriers are issues of concern and these have been regularly flagged at the highest level, most recently at the 2nd Informal Summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chinese President Xi Jinping in Chennai in 2019.
However, the developments along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh have seriously disturbed the peace and tranquility in border areas, which has “obviously had an impact on the broader relationship too”, he said.
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Stressing that India has remained firm in its commitment of placing its trade relationship with China on a more sustainable footing and has raised these issues at all appropriate occasions with the Chinese side. He though conceded that developments since then, including COVID-19 pandemic, “have not been helpful in our efforts to address these concerns”. He said that even as New Delhi continues to pursue these issues with Beijing, “we also need to do work at home”. According to him, that is why, Atmanirbhar Bharat – an India with greater capabilities not just helping itself but being a force for good in the international arena, becomes important.
Shringla was speaking at a seminar on “Leveraging China’s Economy”, here. He said there were a number of market access impediments including a whole host of non-tariff barriers, for most of our agricultural products and the sectors we are competitive in, such as pharmaceuticals, IT/ITES, etc.
In the first nine months of this year, the India-China bilateral trade touched US$ 90 billion, which was an increase of 49% over last year. “At this rate, we are likely to attain the highest ever bilateral trade between two countries. The trade, however, remains unbalanced with a large trade balance in favour of China,” he said.
– global bihari bureau
