India,China Economic Group meeting to be held today

India and China Economic Group meeting will be held in New Delhi today. Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu and his Chinese counterpart Zhong Shan and senior officials of both countries would deliberate upon ways to boost trade and reduce trade deficit. 

The meeting assumes significance as India has time and again raised the issue of heavy trade imbalance with China and sought steps to facilitate Indian exports in areas including pharmaceutical and agricultural products and information



technology services. 

Investment related issues are also likely to come up for discussion besides market access matters and other non-trade barriers.Trade deficit with China stood at 36.73 billion dollar during April-October this fiscal. 

Increasing trade deficit with China can be attributed primarily to the fact that Chinese exports to India rely strongly on manufactured items to meet the demand of fast expanding sectors like telecom and power.