Indian Firms Absent From 4th China International Expo
The 4th China International Import Expo has started. At the second CIIE, India had been one of the 15 guest-of-honor countries. Around 10 small Indian pharmaceutical firms had displayed their products at the expo venue. The booths were crowded with visitors who asked about those products.
Last year, the were only three Indian companies at the CIIE, one of which was a manufacturer of gift products. Now the catalog of 4th CIIE exhibitors displayed at the exhibition halls show that no Indian company is listed. A search for Indian exhibitors in the expo’s digital catalogue, presented on the CIIEs’ official website, also show no results.
Though still a fairly large number, but down from second Expo, of global businesses from many countries and regions are keenly showcasing their products and services at the current expo and eying potential business deals. However with no Indian company listed as participant in the world’s largest fair that focuses on imports may impact China in coming days.
India’s absence from the event kicked off on Thursday, seems to be in line with decline in China-India bilateral trade this year, a trend that is increasingly visible with growing political acrimony between the two countries.
The number of Indian companies that attend the CIIE has been decreasing progressively in recent years and dropped to zero at this year’s CIIE, according to an official catalog of participants for the event.
Border disputes and Beijing hostile intentions have already started to reduce India’s reliance on a variety of Chinese goods such as auto parts and various small commodities.
For the whole of the coronavirus-hit 2020, bilateral trade fell 5.6 percent to $87.59 billion, with China’s exports to India down 10.8 percent to $66.73 billion and its imports from India up 16 percent to $20.86 billion.
