You might have read this in recent news – India-China trade has hit historic high of $84 billion, a 18.63% rise. This despite the facts that China has been creating issues like Doklam, has been opposing India's NSG membership and has armed and supported to Pakistan over the years.
What is more important is that India's 'Trade Deficit' to China has mounted to $52 billion with this record surge in bilateral trade. In fact, officials on both sides expect trade between the two Asian giants to pick up further this year.
Here, few experts feel that India could use this dependence of Chinese businesses on Indian market to its advantage and rather wield it as a weapon in its negotiations and impending standoffs with China. As an example, in the recent past, during the Doklam conflict where India successfully fended its friend Bhutan and itself from China's dictatorial strides with deft diplomacy and a strong force deployment. But the trade considerations played a large role on the Chinese minds, is what experts says.
China's exports are dominated by electrical machinery and equipment, fertilizers, organic chemicals in addition to antibiotics with antibiotics exports touching $783 million in 2017; this when Indian pharmaceutical companies face major restrictions in China.
Indian exports to China mainly consist of copper, diamonds, iron ore, organic chemicals and cotton yarn. Interestingly, copper registered a significant increase of 115.78% to reach $2.15 billion. Copper, a key component of IT and electronics goods will be an advantage for China as it dominates the manufacturing in these two sectors.
Against this backdrop the question remains, are we Indians still keen to buy Chinese goods that threaten our 'National Security'?
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