India-China trade talk to discuss power equipment duty hike

Commerce minister Anand Sharma will meet his Chinese counterpart Chen Deming on August 27 for bilateral trade talks in Delhi. Both the commerce ministers will have a dialogue after almost two and a half years and it is learnt that the Chinese side will raise the issue of import duty hike on power equipment by India.

CNBC-TV18's Rituparna Bhuyan reports that the duty on power equipment, the total incidence of which is around 21% will top the agenda of China's bilateral trade talks.

Though the duty is applicable to imports from all the countries, China will be raising the issue because most of the power equipment imported by India is from China. However, the net impact of this hike on the Chinese companies will not be much because most of the power generation companies in India have already placed their orders for expansion plans in the 12th five year plan.

The meeting will also be used as an occasion by India to raise a host of issues including a huge trade deficit of about USD 27 billion. Two and a half years back, India had given a plan to China for reducing the trade deficit by having additional access in the pharma and IT sector. But, the Chinese side has not done much on that.

China is expected to raise issues on the number of anti-dumping cases that India has opened up on Chinese products. In addition to that the Chinese delegation will also be asking for easier norms for Chinese companies doing business in India.