Jaishankar says India-China economic relations are ‘unfair’ – Firstpost

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India’s economic relations with China were unbalanced as Indian products do not have the same access to the Chinese market as Chinese products do in India, despite a growing trade imbalance with China.

This move comes as Chinese imports have crossed $100 billion in FY2024 and continue to grow in the current fiscal. However, in the last fiscal, Indian exports barely crossed $16 billion. Chinese imports have already crossed $60 billion in the first seven months of 2024, a 10% increase from $55 billion in the same period last year.

Speaking at the Global Centre for Security Policy in Geneva, Jaishankar said he believed there was a lot of injustice and imbalance in economic relations with China.

He also added that they do not have the same market access as in India.

In 2022, the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) released a discussion paper that highlighted the many non-tariff barriers that Indian exporters face in China. These barriers restrict market access for Indian exports, particularly those involving pharmaceuticals and agricultural products. All policies that impede international trade without including tariffs are termed as non-tariff barriers.

Regarding pharmaceutical exports to China, the EAC-PM study highlighted that, unlike other countries, China prohibits second-chance testing by an external laboratory when goods are rejected during random sampling due to non-compliance found during testing.

“There is no recourse and the laboratory’s decision is considered final, so there is no way to challenge or appeal the findings. This has a substantial financial cost to businesses and some repercussions on bilateral trade, the report says.”

The General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC) annually compiles the list of permitted facilities, and the EAC-PM further noted that exports of grapes and mangoes to China are subject to this list.

The newspaper noted that Indian authorities have submitted a dynamic list, through the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), which can be verified online, indicating the products registered after a rigorous recognition process by APEDA and the National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO). However, the list has to be resubmitted every year, followed by additional requirements for video inspections.

According to the EAC-PM, the annual GACC re-registration process and publication of the list of approved facilities on its website results in duplication of work, delays, higher transaction costs and trade barriers for Indian mangoes and grapes.

The documents notified by China to the WTO, which contain its standards and rules, are either inadequate or written in Chinese, which poses a significant problem for Indian exporters operating in China, as also highlighted by the EAC-PM. The study suggests that China adopt the English, French and Spanish languages ​​notified by the WTO to reduce these costs.

When China issues notifications on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and technical barriers to trade (TBT), it often fails to specify the product category to which it refers. As a result, Indian exporters are forced to spend additional time and money collecting and translating documents from multiple sources.