CHENNAI, JAN 20: With dumping of goods from other Asian countries - especially China - becoming the order of the day, Indian industry has started pressing the panic button. The Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) today warned that unless the cost of production was slashed down, the rapid fall in import duties in the country might lead to closure of several industries, particularly the small and medium scales.Expressing concern over falling rates of duties, FICCI president Chirayu Amin said they were bound to head in the direction of rates prevailing in South-East Asia and ASEAN. “In this situation, many industries, particularly the small and medium and even some large ones would be threatened with closures unless, our costs radically decline,†he told a meeting organised by the consultative committee of Madras Chambers of Commerce here. China is flooding the Indian market with cheap electronic goods whose value stands at $115 million during the first half of the current fiscal, a 50 per cent increase over the same period last year, reveals a commerce ministry’s internal study. The study on the trends of exports to and imports from Beijing during the past few years states that there has also been a sharp increase of 65 per cent in imports of Chinese electrical machinery, amongst other electronic machinery, during April-September 2000 over April-September 1999. India’s total imports from China during the first half of 2000-01 have gone up by 26 per cent over the same period last year. During the past two years, imports of Chinese electronic goods have increased by 9 per cent, from $161 million in 1998-99 to $184 million in 1999-2000. A worrying fact is the surge in imports of electronic goods which during the whole of 2000-01 judged by the trends in the first half may be much higher than those in 1999-2000. The study states that between 1995-96 and 1999-2000, India’s exports to Beijing in dollars terms shot up by 65 per cent, whereas India’s imports increased by only 59 per cent. The percentage, of India’s exports to Beijing, to the country’s total exports, however, has risen from one per cent to 1.5 per cent only in this period. During the above five-year period, the percentage of India’s imports from China to the total Indian imports has increased from 2.2 per cent to 2.8 per cent. Plastics and linoleum products having a share of 10 per cent of India’s export basket have shot by 238 per cent. India and Beijing are aiming to achieve a total trade turnover of at least $5 billion in the coming years.
