Bhubaneswar: The relation between India and China is supposed to be improving. Both sides have agreed to a border deal last year. It was aimed at reseting the trade ties, since then there has been some positive changes like certain bilateral visits, strategic meetings and deescalation at the border.
Despite this one area remains troubled which is trade. China seems to be imposing a silent blockage towards India, though on paper at present. There is no shows of selling to India but in practice it looks different. It is showing to be choking the selling of fertilizers supply to India. There is no official ban in place. Beijing is using other indirect means for instance, every shipment is supposed to be inspected before it is being exported. Without inspection it cannot be exported. So it is considered a silent blockade.
Reportedly, the same thing has been happening for two months. Indian firms are worried and puzzled. India buys around 160 thousand tons of fertilizers from the month June-December and out of which around 80% comes from China. This is crucial imported item considering agriculture being our predominant priority for food security, economy and a country with 1.4 billion population. Agriculture and food security is a matter of national priority.
Fertilizers are used to boost our farming outputs. The shoetage of fertilizer can cause a harm to the output of our agricultural productions. In the long run, Ina might plug the shotage but for the time being there is very little that our coutry can do. With a prior knowledge to this, China is playing with our economic backbone. An official blockade could be hard for us to defend.
Beijing has opted for this silent method by using long procedures and protocols to delay and deny the supplies. It not just about fertilizers, China imposes similar curbs on rare earth magnets too. Rare earth are a group of seventeen elements that are used in a hoards of things like fighter jets, phones, cars. China makes up 90% of the rare earth processing. If there would be a blockade, it might trigger a shortage.
This has started, last week Indi’s defence minister, Rajnath Singh had visited China. It was a first ministerial trip between both the counties since 2020. In China Rajnath Singh met his counterparts and called for a permanent solution to the border crisis. He also spoke about avoiding new complexities. China has always been keen on this reset.
There can be two major possible factors behind this silent blockade. It could be a negotiating tactics as we are in the middle of the talks to resetting the relationship. So China is flaunting its leverage. It is exposing India’a dependence on Chinese imports to get favorable results such as removal on the ban on the Chinese technologies, clearance from Chinese investments. Secondly, the Chinese initially, wanted India’s help against the US by jointly taking on Donald Trumps’s tariffs. But that equation has changed recently, as India’s ties with Trump has soured. This could be another reason behind China’s aggressive trade behaviour towards India.
Ne Delhi must take note of the fact that China is our largest trading partner. Bilateral trade is larger than 130 billion dollars. A lot of it includes strategically important items like fertilizers and rare earths. It is not just limited to India. Most of the world depends on China for such products.
The solution for this problem could be by creating home grown alternatives. On rare earths, India is seeing this option by preparing projects to boost rare earth outputs. The priority is to find alternatives for the other vulnerable sectors. The other solution is to diversify the source and sell of the goods to the US or Europe.
-OdishaAge
