Regulatory, internal market barriers of China impact India's exports: GTRI

China uses four significant barriers besides customs duties to regulate imports from countries like India, it said

Regulatory and internal market barriers of China are some of the major impediments which impact India's exports to that country, economic think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said on Sunday.

"India must take up all market access issues faced by its exporters with China on a priority basis. India may consider applying mirror regulations to imports from China," it said.

China uses four significant barriers besides customs duties to regulate imports from countries like India and those barriers include regulatory, internal market, trade defense, and political, it said.

"China stifle competitive imports from India through complex regulations," the GTRI said

Quality and standards of products cannot be a problem as India exports to over 100 countries, including the US and Europe, GTRI said.

Citing an example of the pharma sector, it said India imports 90 per cent of bulk drugs or APIs (active pharma ingredients) from China and allows easy access through a simple registration system.

A firm also needs to register its product with the specified Chinese authority, which means submitting many documents, including details about the firm and its products. There is also a requirement of meeting the inspection, product testing, and quality certification.

But in China, registration takes one to three years and Chinese authorities conduct tests again at the time of imports and China cancels registration even if one batch has issues, it added.

"China uses trade to meet political ends," it said, adding an exporter would also have to clear extra barriers to sell goods in the Chinese market as the country always gives preference to its domestic firms.

Further, it said that India's imports from China are in line with global trends as other countries too have similar levels of imports.

"While India must contain imports, the real issue is not high imports but India's low exports to China," it said.

According to the data of Chinese Customs, India's exports to China fell from USD 28.1 billion in 2021 to USD 17.48 billion in 2022. India's imports from China rose from USD 97.5 billion 2021 to USD 118.5 billion in 2022.