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| Jaishankar: Voicing concern |
Beijing, Oct. 27 (PTI): India has said it is important for China to address the ballooning trade deficit in the larger interest of bilateral ties to avoid the impression of an unfair relationship.
“From the (Indian) government’s perspective, the trade deficit is a matter of concern. One, it is very large,” S. Jaishankar, Indian ambassador to China, said while addressing a press conference today at the sixth China International Auto Part Expo in which India is nominated as a “partner country”.
He said a way had to be found to address the issue of balance of trade, which is in favour of China.
“If the trade deficit comes out of a perception of unequal market access than actually, frankly, it is not good for the relationship because it does not give an impression of a fair relationship,” the Indian envoy said.
“So I think it is very important to find a way of dealing with this deficit issue so that it is good for the larger relationship,” he said.
He acknowledged that some Indian IT companies were getting contracts as a result of bilateral initiatives.
Jaishankar also said the Chinese government was responding to India’s concern about the ballooning deficit and it was in the mutual interest of both the countries in the current economic situation to do more business.
Although the Indian IT firms benefited from contracts, bilateral trade was not much of a success in the pharma sector yet, he said.
The trade deficit for India in the first half of this year stood at $13.6 billion compared with $13.4 billion last year.
China had agreed to address it during the recent meeting of commerce ministers in New Delhi.
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