11th Oct 2018 10:10:PM Editorials
Eastern Sentinel Arunachal News

Sometimes, opportunities come like a blot from the blue. For India, the recent trade war between the United States and China are opportunities to increase its exports to China. Due to the lopsided policies of successive Indian governments, especially under the Congress, trade balance has been favouring China. For the ignorant, the trade balance is maintained when both the countries do matching business. In the case of China, it has been exporting more to India than vice versa. Due to the trade war with the US, two important commodities that China is heavily dependent on the US, soybean and cotton are affected. Thus expanding agricultural exports such as soybeans and cotton to China by exploiting this opportunity from the global trade war will help India cut the trade deficit.

 On the other hand, India is in a position to step up and fill the gap left by the US as both commodities are abundantly available in India.  Soybeans are by far China’s top agricultural imports from the US. The oilseed, used to make cooking oil and animal feed, accounted for about 60 per cent of the US’s $20 billion agricultural exports to China before the Asian country imposed additional tariffs in July. China is already the top market for India’s overall export growth in recent months. Between April and August, India’s exports to China have grown an average 52.9 per cent year-on-year, compared with 14.7 per cent to the US, 11.9 per cent to the UAE and 12.6 per cent to Europe.

The rise in exports to China has seen India’s trade deficit with the dragon shrink, although the gap widened on an overall basis. That, along with a slowdown in foreign capital inflows, has led to concerns that the current-account deficit will widen, has prompted Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to hint at more measures to curtail the gap. While a slew of import duties on air-conditioners to footwear have been announced, economists say India needs to take measures to boost exports too. Cotton on which China has imposed tariffs on the US was also among the top three contributors to India’s exports to China. Let us tap this market.


Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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