Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Mar 17, 2006
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Mar 17, 2006 |
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Industry & Economy - Foreign Trade `China could be India's largest trading partner' Our Bureau
China calling An India-China CEO Forum is to be set up to boost business-to-business linkages. Consensus has been reached on the draft of the bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement. The India-China Joint Economic Group also agreed to set up six-joint task forces.
MOVING FORWARD: The Chinese Commerce Minister, Mr Bo Xilai, with the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr Kamal Nath, at the China-India Business Forum in the Capital on Thursday. - Kamal Narang
New Delhi , March 16 China could well emerge as India's largest trading partner, surpassing the US, , in a year or two, the Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, has said. "If the current trend of 35-40 per cent growth in bilateral trade between India and China is maintained, we would easily achieve a $20-billion bilateral trade by 2007, a year in advance of the target year of 2008 that we had earlier set for ourselves," Mr Kamal Nath said at the India-China Joint Business Forum here. Mr Kamal Nath also observed that the US was currently India's largest trading partner and the bilateral trade with that country was about $21 billion. India's bilateral trade with China in 2000-01 was barely $2 billion. This increased to $11.3 billion in 2004-05 and is expected to be in excess of $15 billion in the current fiscal (2005-06). The Minister underscored the need for both India and China to diversify the trade basket if the bilateral trade is to expand exponentially. Earlier in the day, Mr Kamal Nath and the visiting Chinese Commerce Minister, Mr Bo Xilai, co-chaired the 7th meeting of the India-China Joint Economic Group (JEG), which took place after a gap of six years. Later, briefing newspersons on the discussions at the JEG, Mr Kamal Nath said both sides agreed to establish an India-China CEO Forum (in the next three months) to facilitate business-to-business linkages between the businesses of both the countries. Mr Bo said that consensus had been reached on the draft of the bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement (BIPPA) between the two countries. He expressed hope that the signing of this agreement would provide a fillip to the investment flows between the two countries. Stating that the trade volume between the two countries had been increasing rapidly, hesaid that the bilateral trade could touch the $50-billion-mark in 2010 if the current momentum was maintained. He, however, expressed some concern over the low level of investment flows between the two countries. The JEG also agreed to set up six-joint task forces in agriculture (Ministry of Agriculture), harmonisation of standards, reconciliation of trade, non-tariff trade barriers, rules of origin, consultation mechanism on World Trade Organisation (WTO) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). Mr Kamal Nath said a group had been formed to look into the outline and contours of a regional trade agreement (RTA) between the two countries.
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