Top leadership might be talking about addressing the bilateral trade deficit issue between India and China, but experts in Beijing have warned that the imbalance is set to increase amid falling trade between the two countries.
According to the data released by China’s General Administration of Customs, in the first four months of the year, China-India trade declined 6.2% year-on-year.
“Chinese exports increased 3.6% and imports decreased 24%, yielding a trade surplus of $8.83 billion, according to General Administration of Customs,” a state-run China Daily reported.
The report added that in 2012, bilateral trade dropped 10.1%, and China’s exports went down 5.7% while its imports plunged 19.6%, leaving a trade surplus of $28.87 billion, compared with $27.17 billion in 2011 and $20.08 billion in 2010.
The warning from Chinese experts came even as state-run continued its paean on China-India common goals and cooperative partnership.
“India’s trade deficit with China is expanding. In the short term, that’s hard to resolve. The imbalance is mainly because India has limited exports to China, while Chinese manufactured goods have a competitive advantage in the Indian market,” Liu Xiaoxue, a researcher on South Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told a China Daily.
“India’s trade deficit with China will not be reversed in the foreseeable future. Any change depends on whether India can export products that meet the demand of the Chinese market,” said Hu Shisheng, director of the Institute of South and Southeast Asian and Oceanian Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said. “In fact, the trade deficit is likely to increase because India needs more Chinese manufactured products, and China diversified its sources for imports of raw material.”
{{/usCountry}}“India’s trade deficit with China will not be reversed in the foreseeable future. Any change depends on whether India can export products that meet the demand of the Chinese market,” said Hu Shisheng, director of the Institute of South and Southeast Asian and Oceanian Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said. “In fact, the trade deficit is likely to increase because India needs more Chinese manufactured products, and China diversified its sources for imports of raw material.”
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