Indo-China relation

Sir,
It is good that India has finally waken up to the perils of its growing large trade deficits with diplomatically belligerent China and sent a strong message that the current trade imbalance can’t continue for long. On the diplomatic front, China continues to put India under pressure – refusing to support India’s nuclear suppliers group (NSG) membership and its campaign against Pakistan-based terrorists and their outfits that launched dreadful attacks in Mumbai, Pathankot, etc. China also contests India’s territorial rights over Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir and interferes with India’s relationship with Taiwan and Tibetan leader Dalai Lama. China even mocked at ISRO’s feat creating a world record by launching 104 satellites at one go saying it is hardly admirable for impoverished India. However, thanks to India’s stance to delink diplomacy with trade, China is running a massive trade surplus with India to the latter’s utmost discomfort. India now seems to be ready to take up the trade issue with China as, for the second year in a row, India’s trade deficit with China is set to top the $50-billion mark in 2016-17, the highest with any single country.
India must know how to handle the twin trade attacks from China – pushing exports and blocking imports. Maybe a Donald Trump-type prescription on international trade would be more relevant to India to protect its market and local jobs against the systematic Chinese invasion of the market, which also threatens the Government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. China must import more from India to balance the trade between the two countries. If the WTO rules did not help the US export enough automobiles to Japan in the face of strong artificial trade barriers from its top diplomatic friend in the Pacific region, there is no reason to believe that they will come in the way of India’s taking non-tariff actions to rein in massive trade imbalance with China. India must act fast to contain the alarming Chinese trade invasion of the Indian market.
Yours etc…
Nantoo Banerjee
New Delhi

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