By Colonel Awadhesh Kumar, Special Forces veteran
Agricultural products form the bulk of American exports to China. Almost 60 % of total US soyabean exported world wide goes to China alone.
Since 2013 the State of Illinois has been exporting nearly 15000 crores INR worth of soyabean only to China, constituting around 25 % of the States annual agricultural exports.
Besides exports, the growing, crushing,preparing soyabean for exports and other related industries and activities provide nearly 115000 jobs in the State and nearly 210000 crores INR in sales.
So with Trump imposing punitive tariffs on Chinese export to USA, China too has retaliated by imposing its own tariffs and has even cut down its soyabean imports from Illinois.
This has made things very difficult for the soyabean farmers as most of them do not have storage space for their products. The wet weather in the area further complicates storage and preservation of soya.
Similar is the story of erstwhile sky rocketing sales of American bourbon whisky in China.
Over the past 20 years, the sales have increased nearly 1200 times Worldwide. Out of this the major importer has been China, alone contributing nearly 70 crores INR annually.
Another example of close interdependence is the Hollywood. China has nearly 25 % more theatres than entire USA and these show HollyWood produced movies in larger numbers than the American theatres.
Nearly 25% of HollyWood earnings crossing 38000 Crores INR is expected from China alone this fiscal. The list is a long one for both the sides.
However instead of welcoming the 40 year of normalisation of their diplomatic relations, the two countries have locked horns once again.
In case the two largest economies of the World go for a protracted trade war and thereby destabilise World Markets then the third largest economy (PPP) may have to step in to show them a way out. People of the two countries must take hold of the situation and not get carried away by headlines.
Trade tensions must be negotiated and instead of confrontation all must focus on ecological cooperation, economic cooperation, space exploration and anti terrorism.
