India must further liberalise trade ties with China, especially on the border trade front, as the two Asian giants are marching forward to be among the top world economies, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Thursday.
"I am in favour of generally multilaterally liberalising trade and I think the rest of the world is moving towards doing that in a parallel track. We have a regional trade agreement with ASEAN. I think we should have a similar agreement with China, details of course will have to be worked out," Ahluwalia told Indian journalists in Beijing.
"I am very much in favour of very urgent liberalisation of border trade with China. So whatever we can do there, we should do. I know that there are details that have to be worked out on both sides," he said before winding up his two-day visit to understand the dynamics of the rising Communist giant.
Ahluwalia's support for enhanced border trade comes amid concerns in some quarters in New Delhi that liberalisation of border trade with China would result in flooding of Indian market with cheap Chinese goods which could threaten the Indian manufacturing sector.
Allaying such fears, Ahluwalia noted that most Chinese goods are now available in India and that the discerning Indian consumers have firmed up their minds.
"Chinese products are now available in India and people have learned to distinguish the products that are of good quality and those are purely price competitive. I think the presence of good quality products will evoke a competitive quality response," Ahluwalia said.
"There is no doubt in my mind that India and China are the two fastest growing developing countries, China ahead of India, but India definitely catching up. Frankly, 30 years from now, according to many reports, we will be in the top three -- China, the United States and India," he said after holding talks with Zhu Zhixin, vice chairman of National Development Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top planning body.
"It is inconceivable in a globalised world that the largest economy and may be the third largest economy won't have a lot to do with each other. They will. So we should count on that and we should build towards it," Ahluwalia said, while supporting a regular system of consultations between New Delhi and Beijing.
He said his meeting with Zhu was aimed at finding out what China was doing on the energy-related issues, especially on the Kyoto Protocol. "We had a general discussion and we obviously have a shared interest. It wasn't meant to coordinate an actual negotiating position but to get a sense of how they (China) view these things," he said.
"We have been taking to Chinese about institutionalising the dialogues for some time and I have suggested to them we should have a regular system of consultations, may be we meet once a year and they are going to consider that," he said.
Ahluwalia said he was deeply impressed by China's experiences and India would draw lessons so that the country could try and improve the 11th Five-Year Plan, which is in the process of being drawn up.
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