India hopes China will help tackle swelling trade deficit
NEWDELHI: India is hopeful China will facilitate greater market access for its goods and services to tackle a swelling trade deficit, externalaffairsministersushma Swaraj said on Friday as she and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi launched a new mechanism to boost cultural exchanges.
Speaking after the first meeting of the high-level mechanism on cultural and people-to-people exchanges, Swaraj said the armed forces of the two sides were working on confidencebuilding measures to promote peace along the border.
Wang, who referred to India as China’s “most important neighbour” in his speech, said bilateral ties had “entered a new historical stage”. He said he and Swaraj had reviewed progress in various fields and looked at the possibility of future cooperation.
“Our bilateral economic relations have progressed well while our bilateral trade figures continue to rise. We also need to find a solution to the continuously increasing trade deficit,” Swaraj said, adding India is grateful for “concrete steps” taken by China recently to address this matter.
India has taken up the issue of greater market access, especially for agricultural products, pharmaceuticals and IT services, with China several times in the recent past, including during commerce secretary Anup Wadhawan’s visit to the neighbouring country in November.
Bilateral trade rose by 18.63% year-on-year in 2017 and touched $89.71 billion in 2017-18. However, trade deficit increased to $63.12 billion in 2017-18 from $51.11 billion in the previous fiscal.
Swaraj said the armies of the two countries were “making efforts to strengthen contacts and implement various confidence-
building measures”. Expressing satisfaction at “good progress” in bilateral ties this year, Swaraj said both sides were preparing an “ambitious agenda” for 2019 and
are confident President Xi Jinping’s visit to India next year for the second informal summit will “add another new facet” to the developmental partnership.