Zee News
April 18 2007
New Delhi
Beijing, April 17: India has sought increased market access for its agricultural products in China, as a way to address the growing trade surplus that Beijing has started accumulating in bilateral trade.
Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath told reporters here that he took up the matter of access to farm products during his talks with the Chinese side, besides the issue of early approvals for export of Indian tobacco.
Nath also raised the issue of the pending protocols on phyto-sanitary requirements for the export of 14 Indian fruits and vegetables to China. "The (Chinese) response was very good," he said at a briefing on separate bilateral meetings he had with his Chinese counterpart Bo Xilai and Chinese Agricultural Minister, Sun Zhengcai.
"The Chinese side assured that India's concerns on tobacco, fruits, vegetables and other agricultural products would be given full attention," he said. Earlier, Nath told the Chinese leaders that as trade between the two nations grows from 25 billion USD to 40 billion USD, the deficit will start striking out at some time. "You got to keep some semblance of the gap and one of the way to make this up is adding new products into the trade basket and (market) access," the visiting minister said.
China enjoyed an impressive trade surplus of 4.11 billion USD with India in 2006, compared to just 843 million USD in 2005. Indian exports to China grew 7.05 per cent to 10.46 billion USD. However, Chinese exports to India shot up by 63.23 per cent to 14.58 billion USD, Chinese customs statistics show. During the meeting, China expressed its positive interest to the Indian proposal to extend the trading period at Nathu a border trade point from the present five to seven months in a year.
The Chinese side, referring to New Delhi's recent decision to levy an export tax of Rs 300 a tonne on iron Beijing -- the biggest buyer of Indian Ironina also raised the issue of India granting 'market economy' status to Beijing. "As a result of my meeting, we will review how we can expedite the process. Granting the market economy status is not a political decision. It is a decision that should flow out of a process," Nath said. Nath was accompanied by the Commerce Secretary, G.K. Pillai and the Indian Ambassador to WTO, U S Bhatia. The visit was to exchange views and review progress of negotiations on the Doha development agenda of the WTO.
online available at- http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=366360&ssid=50&sid=BUS
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