BEIJING: India and China have begun trading both barbs and statistics with increasing vigour in recent weeks as the row over anti-dumping measures continued to escalate.
With trade between the two countries falling by 32 per cent in the first six months of this year, both countries have stepped up rhetoric accusing each other of protectionism. This week, reports in Chinas State-run media drew attention to the spate of anti-dumping cases India has recently initiated against goods from China. On Thursday, the Indian Embassy in Beijing, usually reticent, issued a statement listing the market access problems India has encountered for the export of agricultural products to China.
Chinese officials in recent weeks have voiced their concerns over the anti-dumping measures India has initiated this year targeting Chinese exports, including toys, textiles, chemicals and mobile phones. India initiated 17 cases against Chinese goods worth $1.5 billion between October and February. In June, India announced a two-year 30 per cent safeguard duty on the import of aluminium products from China, a five-year duty on the import of Vitamin-C and also extended a ban on dairy products.
Liang Wentao, a vice director in the Chinese government’s Ministry of Commerce, told The Hindu in an interview in June that Chinese officials were not happy that the measures “were happening too often in such a short period of time.” Recently released trade figures, showing a 32 per cent drop in trade to $19 billion in the first half of 2009, have further underscored the strains the trade relationship between the two countries has come under following the financial crisis. The figures were a marked contrast from the rapid growth in trade for much of the last decade: trade grew by 34 per cent last year to $52 billion, up from only $3 billion in 2000.
Noting the 42 anti-dumping investigations launched by India, 17 of which were against China, in the second half of 2008 the most by any country — State-run Xinhua news agency said in an editorial on Tuesday that “invisible trade barriers” that were “detrimental to China’s interests” had been erected “in the name of technology, security and environmental protection.”
Last month, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang warned that India risked “undermining the interests of the Indian people” by “shutting the door on Chinese goods.”
On Thursday, the Indian Embassy in Beijing rejected the accusations of protectionism, pointing out that in the first half of this year, Chinese exports to India decreased by 16 per cent, while Indian exports to China fell by 50 per cent. “This can not happen in an environment of protectionism or trade barriers,” the embassy said in a statement.
Indian officials also pointed out the market access problems India has experienced in the export of agricultural products to China.
India has sought access for 17 varieties of fruits and vegetables in the last decade, and China has so far given approval for three of the varieties, officials said.
Source : The Hindu