We all Indians are very emotional at this moment and want our government to ban Chinese products, but the fact is that the government has no control over it. It is just not possible to ban imports from China because we are bound by the World Trade Organization’s rules and regulations. India imports a huge list of products from China because they have the biggest manufacturing units. It includes telephone sets, automatic data processing machines, all machinery items, mineral/chemical fertilizers, maximum parts of electronic equipment, coke and semi-coke coal, steel, aluminium, daily use items and a lot more. This alone shows that India is a heavy importer of the majority of goods from China that are offered at cheaper prices. And fact cannot be ignored that Chinese products, irrespective of what one may say, are cheaper in all respects than any other products. When our country has a maximum population of poor, then obviously they would vouch for Chinese products only and naturally resort to them. If you look around, let it be your driver or house helper, let it be a street vendor or rickshaw pullers, they all possess smartphones, watches and different gadgets made in China. They get a sense of pride and somewhat equal status with others as have the opportunity to avail modern facilities.
And officially even if you ban Chinese products, they will illegally enter India. Else India must have the capability to produce things cheaper and quality wise so that it can counter Chinese products. Just bullying citizens in the name of “Atma Nirbhar” is not enough. We have seen how Make-In-India initiative is a super flop and crores of rupees have been spent on its campaign. All the public money which was invested is wasted on this futile campaign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now he coined the new term, ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’, which is next to impossible in a country where poverty is never ending and youth are jobless. Where the government spends more money on publicity and hardly any on public welfare.
We have to build that capacity to come up with world class Indian made products, which is never going to happen while the world over vouches for Chinese products, so how are you going to ban it? Secondly, all along though the majority of Indians would show their unlikeliness towards Chinese products, they would be the ones to buy foreign goods if not specifically chinese and invariably still not prefer country made products. And whatever you may say about China or dislike them, their products are much more superior than Indian products on all parameters. Hence, the banning of Chinese products is not a solution. Today unfortunately, we cannot manufacture products worth $57.4 billion in a moment’s notice as India does not yield such a large scale of production. Still if you want to ban their products, then replace Chinese imports gradually to some other country like Taiwan. If we analyze the breakdown of products that are imported from China, we will see that 41% of the products that India imports from China has mechanical and electrical equipment which includes television, washing machines, cell phones etc. Can all these products be replaced by countries like Japan, Germany, South Korea?? Big question. The initiative of replacing Chinese products needs to be taken by companies and trades, because neither the government nor the citizens as a consumer can do much in this issue. Presently 80-90% of the market is flooded with Made in China products.
In the past two decades, China has built a large market in almost every sector of the world because of that China has a very strong economy as compared to India. China has been strategically planned on this front and they have made very strong efforts to conquer and ensure their economical growth. This growth did not happen by chance. China has given top priority to Business and economy and with well-planned strategies and long-term vision, they have actively anchored themselves powerfully on all fronts for a successful and truly “Atma Nirbhar” survival. Also, China is using bad tricks to make countries get into debts. China gives loans to developing or remote developing countries like Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, South Africa to build skyscrapers and infrastructures and when they can’t pay back to China these countries have to give them their part of the land. Same trick with India somewhat flopped and both the countries invariably strained guns at each other.
In the year 2018, India’s trade deficit with China is $57.4 billion. How can India ban the import of goods from any country totally since it is a member of WTO and declaring a ban will impact not only our economy but also disturb our foreign relations with other members as undoubtedly everyone will support China. Moreover, China can find an alternative for its imports, but comparatively considering India and other countries, the cost of import will increase and spiral out of control. India will find it difficult to catch up as the country is already under heavy economical stress where such decisions will further add to its load. We cannot just blindly act on some jingoism and deal with neighbors or any other country. China has a well-planned, strategic and strongly emerging economy and this is a very big problem for India. Both countries have a trading relationship in which China clearly dominates India. The only way to solve this problem is to spread awareness between the Indian people to convince the consumer in the Indian market not to buy the Chinese company products, but also give them alternative choices too. The trade deficit had crossed $52 billion in 2017 with China. Imports is $ 68.10 billion and Exports is $ 16.44 billion, this is because of high demand of Chinese smartphones in the Indian market. Some of the top Chinese companies in India are Xiaomi, Oppo, One plus, Lenovo, Vivo, Huawei, Gionee, Honor and others. The interesting fact is that many of these companies have very bad customer service after sales but still users love these brands because of their cheap price and features ignoring the fact the cheap products provide cheaper experience. You can see how the trade war is going on between China and America and America is such a powerful country they are also finding it hard to ban products from China and increasing import duties on Chinese products. If the intention behind the ban is to make China suffer by cutting the trade, that very idea could be a disaster. China is important not just to India but the world where even the super nation USA cannot afford to cut trade ties with China.
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
