The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has decided to boycott Chinese products to protest about its move to support Pakistan in United Nations' Security Council over abrogation of article 370.
CAIT National President B C Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said that China is in habit of supporting Pakistan on every matter which is against India and therefore now the time has come when we should reduce our dependency on Chinese goods.
"The import from China in 2017-18 was about 90 billion dollars. Trade with China constitute more than 40 per cent of total trade deficit which shows that India is a very big market for China and instead of supporting genuine stand of India, it always takes the side of Pakistan even without any logical reason and therefore it is the time when Indian traders and importers should began boycotting Chinese goods," they said.
The issue will be discussed in national conference of trade leaders scheduled on 29th August and a national campaign among traders and citizens will be launched from first September," the traders' body said in a statement.
"The CAIT has urged the Government that as a first step it should levy custom duty from 300 to 500 per cent on imports of Chinese goods. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with least developed countries should be reconsidered, as they nullify the effect of the anti-dumping duties on imports from China," they added.
They also urged the Government to announce a special package for
development of local small industry for producing high quality goods at competitive prices and to leverage their potential, it said.
"The Standing Committee on Commerce headed by Naresh Gujral had submitted its report on "Impact of Chinese Goods on Indian Industry" in July 2018 and
has recommended that an
anti dumping duty should be levied on Chinese goods and the government should take effective steps to stop illegal imports and smuggling," Khandelwal said.
"The value of seized smuggled goods from China was Rs 1,024 crore in 2016-17 and year by year this figure is constantly increasing. The Committee noted that poor quality Chinese products dominate the unorganized retail sector. This sector comprises domestic MSMEs, producing more expensive but better quality products. It also found that there is a need to promote domestic MSMEs. It suggested that import of finished goods be taxed at the highest rate, and raw materials at the lowest, to boost domestic production," they said.
"Further, India has free trade agreements (FTAs) with Least Developed Countries such as Bangladesh. Chinese fabric is manufactured into garments in Bangladesh, and imported at cheap rates into India. Firecrackers are yet one another sector which has large imports from China. Toy Industry is another sector which imports goods worth Rs 15000 crores from China every year though our domestic toy industry is fully capable to produce high quality goods but for electronic toys it has to depend upon China for chips, motors and other electronic items," the traders' body said in a statement.
It is notable that in case of China the goods that are being imported in our country are largely of mass consumption where probably technology is not required and there is no mechanism to check whether such imports meet with our prescribed standards or not. The CAIT has urged the Government to seriously consider this issue and take necessary steps to ensure that imports from China are minimized.
