China Contests Official Indian Data Claiming That US is New Delhi's 'Largest Trading Partner'

Trade data released by India this week claims that the US has overtaken China as New Delhi’s biggest trading partner. Bilateral trade between India and the US stood at $119.42 billion in 2021-22, as per New Delhi. On the other hand, Indian statistics claim that the two-way trade with Beijing amounted to $115.42 billion during the same period.

The Chinese foreign ministry on Tuesday said that Beijing was New Delhi's "largest trading partner" in 2021, thus contesting India’s official trade statistics published this week about the US having overtaken China as the biggest commerce partner of the South Asian nation.

"According to the statistics of Chinese competent authorities, bilateral trade volume between China and India stood at $125.66 billion in 2021. On that basis, China remains India’s largest trading partner, and the total trade volume topped $100 billion for the first time," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said today.

"The disparity in trade figures published by China and India is a result of different statistical measurement scales,” Zhao reckoned.

The Chinese official further said that Beijing “does not object” to the development of normal trade ties between the US and India. He added that China wasn’t “interested in the changes of the ranking in trade volume” either.

“What we care about is whether the Indian side has the will and takes real actions to create a fair, transparent, sustainable and sound environment for bilateral trade and investment, further expand mutually-beneficial cooperation between the two sides and deliver tangible benefits to the two countries and two peoples,” Zhao remarked.

Since the eruption of the deadly border standoff in eastern Ladakh in 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has accelerated efforts to de-couple its economy from China’s by trying to reduce its reliance on Chinese imports.

However, data published by General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC) in January this year claimed that Chinese exports to India neared a record $100 billion-mark for the first time in history in 2021.

According to the official Chinese data, the overall bilateral trade of $125 billion in 2021 was heavily skewed in favour of China, with the trade deficit witnessing a year-on-year increase from $45.9 billion in 2020 to $69.4 billion last year.

As per trade data released by the Indian commerce ministry this week, India’s annual exports to China increased slightly from $21.18 billion in 2020-21 to $21.25 billion in 2021-22.

The official Indian statistics also affirmed Beijing’s claim that Chinese exports to India have risen to a historic high in 2021-22, pegging the figure at $94.16 billion.

As per Indian data, the trade deficit between India and China rose to $72.91 billion in 2021-22 from $44 billion the previous fiscal year.

The Indian Commerce Ministry data says that India-US bilateral trade rose from $80.51 billion in 2020-21 to $119.42 billion in 2021-22.

As per New Delhi, both imports from the US and Indian exports to the world’s biggest economy witnessed significant increases in 2021-22.