CHINA hopes to have free trade discussions with India during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao s visit to New Delhi this week.
The free trade agreement is the next stage (of India-China relations). It is our hope that we can start the process, China s envoy to India, Zhang Yan, told reporters in New Delhi yesterday.
We are very much positive on these issues. I think that in general the Indians think it is positive but need more time.
Wen s visit will be the first to India by a Chinese premier in four years and comes a month after U.S. President Barack Obama s trip to the country.
Assistant Chinese Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue said everything would be up for discussion during the Wednesday-Friday visit to New Delhi. Wen then goes straight to Pakistan for another two nights.
No issues are off the table, Hu told reporters in Beijing, adding the India trip was to expand bilateral trade, increase cooperation and promote regional peace and stability.
China and India plan to sign a series of business deals, including one agreed in October for Shanghai Electric Group Co. to sell power equipment and related services worth US$8.3 billion to India s Reliance Power.
India s trade deficit with China rose to US$16 billion in 2007-08 from US$1 billion in 2001-02, according to Indian customs data. China is India s biggest trading partner, with bilateral trade expected to pass US$60 billion this year.
India has sought to diversify its trade basket, but raw materials and other low-end commodities such as iron ore still make up about 60 percent of its exports to China.
In contrast, manufactured goods from trinkets to turbines form the bulk of Chinese exports.
We believe the trade imbalance is due to the economic structure of the two countries and the import and export trade structure. As trade develops, that gap should narrow, said Liang Wentao, a deputy director-general at the Ministry of Commerce.
Partly in response to the imbalance, New Delhi this year blacklisted telecom equipment from Chinese vendors Shenzhen-based Huawei and ZTE, citing national security concerns. The eight-month ban, which was relaxed in August, came less than a week after Indian media reports that Chinese hackers had broken into the computer networks of India s security, defense and diplomatic establishments.
(SD-Agencies)
