Taking a protectionist stance 'a narrow approach'
The Indian government is expected to take necessary steps to discourage boycotts of Chinese goods to maintain sound bilateral economic and trade ties, a Chinese commerce ministry official said Wednesday.
Shen Danyang, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), told a briefing in Beijing that "we have already noticed foreign media reported that some Indian politicians urged people to boycott China-made goods during Diwali, [a traditional Hindu festival], in October."
Chinese goods that are exported to India meet the demands of the local market and Indian people's needs for work and daily life, Shen said.
"However, in order to fish for political capital, a few Indian politicians called for a boycott of China-made products, which goes against both countries' wishes to seek friendly cooperation and achieve mutual benefits," he said.
As the world's two fast-growing economies, China and India have large markets and their economic structures are complementary, Shen said, noting that further economic and trade cooperation accords with the interests of both countries and their people.
"We hope that the Indian government will take some measures to control the situation and guide its media to give objective reports about economic and trade cooperation between China and India, which features mutual benefits, aiming to create a sound atmosphere for bilateral cooperation," Shen said.
China and India are important partners for one another in economic and trade cooperation, but because India's economic growth has slowed recently, the country has tended to strengthen protection on trade and investment to curb its trade deficit with China, an expert said.
India is seeking to minimize the tariff concessions it offers for Chinese goods and delay those concessions by many years to prevent China from flooding its market with cheap goods, Indian newspaper The Economic Times reported Friday.
India tries to treat Chinese products differently due to the rising deficit it has with China, the report noted.
In the first seven months of 2016, India's merchandise exports to China were $4.7 billion while imports were $33.5 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $28.8 billion, up 0.8 percent year-on-year, MOFCOM data showed.
"Chinese products are cheap and good, posing competition in the Indian market. But taking a protectionist stance toward China is a narrow approach to self-protection," Wang Jun, deputy director of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges' Department of Information, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Given the sluggish world economy, this isn't an isolated situation. Even some developed countries and regions have increased protectionism, Wang said, noting that as global trade continues to shrink, such cases will increase in the coming years.
Reducing trade with other countries and regions is not good for the global sluggish economy, he said.
Also, China should be prepared to learn more about foreign markets and try to work with local companies in those markets to address protectionism, according to Wang.
