India Seeking Ways To Curb Import Of Chinese Products

BENGALURU: India’s growing trade deficit with China—an estimated $36 billion in 2013-14, has become a source of anguish in Indian policy circles. So before it does more damage and gets out of hand, the Indian government is looking to put breaks on Chinese products and several other consumer goods from China through standards and safeguards measure, reports By Dilasha Seth of ET.

According to officials, it is said that over the last two years the government has looked at 1,500 product imports from China worth 15 crore, which include products like mobile phones, laptops, CDs, CD covers, ceramics, auto seat covers and others. In addition, it has also emerged that a quarter of the total imports from China in the past two years have been just electronics and consumer goods, which the government believes can be produce locally.

It is said that about 78,000 crore worth of consumer imports took place in the past two years. Among the products, mobiles phones alone accounted for 31,000 crore worth of imports and this segment has seen a surge in imports in the past three-four years.

So get things started at this minute, the government is setting up an inter-department monitoring group that will check imports from China, comprising representatives from departments of pharmaceuticals, telecom, power, chemicals and fertilizers, pharma and steel.

Biswajit Dhar, professor, JNU said, "It is commendable that the government has recognised the need to check the rise in non-essential imports from China, which can also be linked to the 'Make in India' campaign. However, the implementation or actually restricting imports may not be easy." He further adds that, "The problem is, if you impose standards, you have to do it on a most favored nation basis. Then you cannot say that you don't want Chinese imports."
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