India intends to impose tariffs on China's power equipment

In recent days, India has issued several new policies, all pointing to the revitalization of domestic manufacturing and restrictions on other countries’ products. This will put China, which is India’s largest trading partner, bearing the brunt of it. The reporter learned from the related website of the Ministry of Commerce on the 2nd that India recently officially approved the adoption of a national manufacturing policy aimed at accelerating the development of domestic manufacturing and stimulating employment. At the same time, foreign trade policies also have new trends. On the one hand, they are stimulating the development of export-oriented enterprises in labor-intensive industries. The new measure, on the other hand, intends to impose tariffs on China's power equipment to reverse the trade deficit with China.

The Ministry of Commerce website quoted foreign media reports that India’s Minister of Public Enterprises and Heavy Industry Prafu Patel plans to hold a meeting on November 3 to discuss and promote domestic proposals on the levy of tariffs on imported power equipment. The meeting was to respond to local manufacturers’ requirements for restricting the import of China’s power equipment. Indian Ministry of Heavy Industry officials and officials from the Ministry of Commerce and Energy will attend the meeting. An anonymous senior government official in India stated: "For a long time, as China's cheap power equipment has entered the market, domestic companies have complained about the decline in competitiveness. If we can impose tariffs and consumption tax on China's power equipment, the effective tax rate for such equipment will reach 17% to 18%.”

“As early as when China and India discussed how to expand trade between the two countries and double the trade volume between the two countries to 100 billion U.S. dollars by 2015, India intends to reduce the import of China’s power equipment and reverse the country’s trade deficit. The “Wall Street Journal” commented that .

At present, China is India’s largest trading partner. According to customs data, from January to October this year, China’s exports to India totaled US$54.5 billion, an increase of 26% year-on-year, and US$37.2 billion in imports, a year-on-year increase of 8.9%. Mechanical industrial products such as electrical equipment are the main products exported by China to India. India’s plan for China’s power equipment is due to its tactics of trying to revitalize domestic manufacture and limit the export of Chinese products.

“This is a very short-sighted policy choice and cannot solve long-term problems.” Song Wei, director of the International Trade Research Office of the Institute of International Politics and Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told reporters that in fact, India’s domestic electricity supply cannot keep pace with local manufacturing. Businesses can no longer meet the growing market demand, so limiting the import of China's power equipment is detrimental to others. In addition, the basic conditions for the current development of manufacturing in India are not yet available. To develop the manufacturing industry requires a large amount of infrastructure investment and long-term population education. However, India has to focus on short-term trade restrictions. This does not solve the problem of long-term development. .

Experts said that in the context of the lack of optimism in the US and Europe markets, Chinese companies are increasingly looking to India, Brazil and other emerging market countries. These countries have also become an important source of growth for China’s exports. However, these countries have gradually exposed the trend of trade protection. This undoubtedly makes the situation of Chinese enterprises more difficult and also increases the uncertainty of exports.