China offers to reduce trade surplus with India

Mumbai: China would make all efforts to correct the imbalance in trade with India, which is heavily in China's favour, Chinese ambassador Zhang Yan said.

Speaking at a function organised by Bharat Chamber of Commerce in Kolkota, he said China never sought a trade surplus with India and was willing to make concerted efforts to look into the matter by expanding imports to reduce the trade deficit with India.

China had emerged as India's second largest trading partner after the United States. Bilateral trade between the two countries during 2007 rose to $38.7 billion, while the target for 2010 was set at $60 billion.

Yan said the world could derive benefits from Sino-India trade ties. While India has an edge in the fields of IT and finance, China had excelled in the areas of manufacture, infrastructure, tourism and transportation.

India and China, he said, could work in partnership in the area of steel. China was the number one in steel production in the world with 489 million tonne production in 2007 while India is a major exporter of iron ore. This can be put to greater mutual benefit, he pointed out.

Yan said the Chinese were experiencing work visa problems in India and urged the government to look into the matter at an early date for "mutually beneficial cooperation."