Mainland China’s exports to India since January 2020 have fallen by 24.7 per cent year-on-year to $32.28 billion, customs data from the Chinese Government has shown. China’s imports from India have also gone up 6.7 per cent since January this year to $11.09 billion. Consequently, total trade with India has registered a slightly lower 18.6 per cent drop since the beginning of 2020 to at $43.47 billion. However, in July China’s exports saw a slight jump to $5.6 billion, up from $4.79 billion in June, 2020.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) announced restrictions on import of television sets late in July to encourage local manufacturing. In the financial year 2019-20, India had imported TV sets worth $300 million from China and $400 million from Vietnam. The total value of imported TV sets during last fiscal stood at $781 million.
The Government is also planning to impose licensing requirements for import of goods from 20 sectors, including furniture, toys, sports goods, textiles, air conditioners, leather, footwear,
agro-chemicals, CCTVs, ready-to-eat food, steel, aluminium, electric vehicles, auto components, TV set-top boxes, ethanol, copper and bio fuels, to boost local manufacturing of these items.
Reports have suggested that India is also looking to hike customs duty on imported active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) by 10-15 per cent. The Indian pharmaceutical industry depends heavily on imports from China, with 68 per cent APIs and more than 90 per cent antibiotics being sourced from the neighbouring nation.
Source:- Daily Shipping Times
