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India gives China a mouthful
NEW DELHI: India has taken its growing concerns of trade imbalances to China’s doorstep. In regular circumstances, this would have passed unnoticed,
buried among other business news. But in the India-China context, trade is a strategic asset, as important as the boundary dispute.
India-China trade figures have been a source of comfort while other aspects of bilateral ties have gone through the wringer. Standing at $52 billion by end-2008it is the shining statistic that everybody uses to show that things are not so bad.
But behind this figure is the fact that India’s exports to China are overwhelmingly primary products like iron ore, while its imports are manufactured goods and sophisticated equipment.
In an article dated September 17 in the Chinese government’s official magazine, Beijing Review, China stated that this was essentially because India perceived China as a ‘‘threat’’... Attributing India’s so-called ‘‘defensive posture’’ to its insecurity about China, the Chinese article said it was due to ‘‘an Indian fear of China’s rapid development, along with an aversion to Chinese products. This has diminished the Chinese market in India’’.
For the first time, the Indian government has not taken this lying down. In an official response to the article, the Indian embassy in Beijing refuted the Chinese stand in an official article in the same magazine this week.
Saying that bilateral relations were not a ‘‘zero-sum’’ game, India responded to China in its own language, as an official article in an official publication.
Taking a much more positive approach to the bilateral relationship, India refuted a stand by Chinese official media that there is little political trust. ‘‘The trade basket with China is an exception, not a rule... The problem is that restricted market access and tariff/non-tariff barriers have limited the scope for growth,’’ the article said.
India gives China a mouthful - India - The Times of India
NEW DELHI: India has taken its growing concerns of trade imbalances to China’s doorstep. In regular circumstances, this would have passed unnoticed,
buried among other business news. But in the India-China context, trade is a strategic asset, as important as the boundary dispute.
India-China trade figures have been a source of comfort while other aspects of bilateral ties have gone through the wringer. Standing at $52 billion by end-2008it is the shining statistic that everybody uses to show that things are not so bad.
But behind this figure is the fact that India’s exports to China are overwhelmingly primary products like iron ore, while its imports are manufactured goods and sophisticated equipment.
In an article dated September 17 in the Chinese government’s official magazine, Beijing Review, China stated that this was essentially because India perceived China as a ‘‘threat’’... Attributing India’s so-called ‘‘defensive posture’’ to its insecurity about China, the Chinese article said it was due to ‘‘an Indian fear of China’s rapid development, along with an aversion to Chinese products. This has diminished the Chinese market in India’’.
For the first time, the Indian government has not taken this lying down. In an official response to the article, the Indian embassy in Beijing refuted the Chinese stand in an official article in the same magazine this week.
Saying that bilateral relations were not a ‘‘zero-sum’’ game, India responded to China in its own language, as an official article in an official publication.
Taking a much more positive approach to the bilateral relationship, India refuted a stand by Chinese official media that there is little political trust. ‘‘The trade basket with China is an exception, not a rule... The problem is that restricted market access and tariff/non-tariff barriers have limited the scope for growth,’’ the article said.
India gives China a mouthful - India - The Times of India
