India needs calibrated approach to reduce import dependency on China: SBI report

09 Jul 2020 Evaluate

State Bank of India (SBI) in its research report – Ecowrap has stated that India needs a calibrated approach to reduce its import dependency on China as the neighbouring country has slowly and steadily built a solid base in both high and low-value imports into India. It noted that China has spread out in all other categories, including low value manufacturing to high-value capital and electrical goods imports to India. It added that the government’s decision to restrict access to 59 Chinese apps from India will provide space to the domestic IT sector to develop its own capabilities.

According to the report, the data on services and merchandise trade exports shows that India can definitely compete with China on the services front. It also said India exports a far greater amount of telecommunications, computer, and information services than China. However, it said China is rapidly catching up and India needs to buckle up and there is now a huge clamour about banning imports from China, after the border standoff. It also stated that ideally, India must go for imposing restrictions on certain products in which it has a Revealed Comparative Advantage over China, and which will provide support to MSMEs.

However, the report said ‘demanding to curtail all imports at one go from a country which is so entrenched in our economic system is unreasonable and might disrupt the local supply chain when looked at, either from the producers' side or consumers' side’. As per the report, India is dependent on China for a lot of products at the lower end of manufacturing. It said with its huge IT base, India can focus more on services while building capabilities in goods exports to improve its overall trade balance with China. It added that China is already coming under fire due to its aggressive stance and it gives other Asian nations an opportunity to look at the share that China has captured in services exports of telecommunications, computer, and information services. 

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