Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National spokesperson (Economic Affairs) Gopal Krishna Agarwal said that India and China will be working together to do away with the growing trade deficit in the country and the government is doing its best to help domestic industries to flourish amidst competition from Chinese goods.
While speaking on the reasons for the imbalance between the two countries, he pointed to the import of manufactured goods as being the main reason for the deficit. He claimed that, this trade is affecting mainly the small and medium scale industries, those producing these goods domestically.
"Our import from China is being dominated by manufactured goods, produced by small and medium scaled industries in the country. This is the main cause of concern of those organizations which are opposing Chinese goods," he said.
He also claimed that the 'Swadeshi Abhiyan' propagated by Sangh Parivar affiliate Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, is to support the small and medium scale industries in the country and is a voluntary campaign, arising out of genuine concerns.
Agrawal said, "We have a very large bilateral trade with China. Our import from China is $ 62 billion. Our export is only $ 10 billion. We need to tackle this imbalance. We have to find ways to export our products to China."
Though Chinese export to India constitutes only 2.5% of its total export but it comprises about 16% of India's total imports. And, annual trade deficit of $ 52 billion with China is about 60% of our total global trade deficit if we exclude our oil imports.
He also pointed out that our export of agricultural commodities is being hindered on account of environmental and phytosanitary issues. There are issues of export subsidy in China in the form of infrastructure, lower interest rate etc.
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He also said that the Chinese authorities are apprised of our concerns and are willing to help in this regard.
Krishna also said that the Narendra Modi-led government is doing everything within the legal framework to change the situation; like anti dumping duty on steel, correcting inverted duty structure etc.
He pointed to the 'Make-in India' programme and the newly implemented Goods and Service Tax (GST) as initiatives, which will help domestic manufacturers to increase the production of Indian goods.
"We want to promote Make in India to save these small scale industries. Under the new GST regime, with Eway bill, the illegal market will be killed, where Chinese goods were flourishing." he said while talking to ANI.
Refuting claims that the support to boycott Chinese goods was a result of the Doklam standoff, Agrawal said, "This has got nothing to do with Doklam. Doklam was a military and border issue between China and Bhutan. These are separate issues. Moreover, the Doklam issue is amicably resolved."
He said that the decision by the party to support domestically manufactured goods is solely based on economic considerations. He also expressed the fact that BJP's main aim is to increase exports to China and not implement 'protectionism'.
"The global trade deficit of India is $ 120 billion, and $ 92 billion of it is from other than petroleum products. Out of this, $ 52 billion trade deficit is with China alone. The BJP is more concerned with increasing exports to China, getting export barriers removed and countering subsidies being given by the Chinese government to its industries," he said.
Agrawal also expressed Cyber-security as an important reason to promote electronic products produced in India.
"The issue of privacy and data sharing is important. Cyber-security is a great concern for India," he said.
He emphasized the importance of such voluntary movements and compared it to that of Mahatma Gandhi's Swadeshi movement.