'Campaign against China-made products may hurt bilateral ties'

GUWAHATI: Ahead of the BRICS summit in Goa, Chinese media on Friday warned that the Indian campaign to ban Chinese goods could 'damage bilateral ties'.

It also asked the Centre to initiate domestic reforms to attract Chinese investors and reduce trade deficit instead.

Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and tourism and health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma have both sought a boycott of Chinese goods, particularly items used during festivals.

The state-run

Global Times

(GT) reported that India needed to encourage Chinese smartphone-makers to set up production lines in the country and suggested that the upcoming meeting between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Goa summit could provide the opportunity for the two countries to 'step up efforts to promote investment cooperation'.

"Besides, India may need to roll out domestic reforms, such as further streamlining its tax system, to improve its economic ecology and attract more Chinese investment," the GT reported.

Quoting data provided by China's '

General Administration of Customs

', the newspaper stated that, in September, India had exported goods worth $922 million to China and imported goods worth $5.4 billion.

"The huge trade deficit with China has become an increasingly unharmonious factor in bilateral ties. India and China should take practical measures to narrow the trade imbalance when leaders of the two nations meet over the weekend for the BRICS summit," it wrote.

The major imports from China included electronic components, telecom instruments, chemicals and pharmaceutical products, while major exports included ore, plastics and cotton.

"Sadly, it seems that India is not on the right path. The country is trying to reduce its trade deficit with China through trade protectionism. In March, Indian local media reports said there had been 322 anti-dumping cases in India so far, of which 177 cases involved Chinese products. Besides, a social media campaign urging people to refrain from buying China-made products has recently been building. Such moves will not contribute to reducing India's trade deficit, but could damage bilateral ties instead," the newspaper reported.