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Representing the ministry of commerce and industry, Amitabh Kumar, additional secretary in the department of commerce, underscored that persistent trade imbalances must be addressed through expanded market access, greater cooperation on standards, and streamlined trade facilitation.
India-China trade deficit concerns
India is facing both these issues with China. Though the Chinese have indicated that they will resume exports of rare earth magnets and minerals to India, the formal approval for applications from Indian Industry is still to come.
Another long-standing issue with China is the ever increasing trade deficit that touched $100 billion last financial year.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in a recent interview, acknowledged the scale of the challenge. “We need to have trade conversations, market access conversations, non-tariff barriers conversation with the Chinese,” she said, emphasizing that much work remains to bridge the gap.
While China, Russia along with four other members founded the SCO, it now has 10 members including India and Pakistan.
Push for WTO reforms and digital economy cooperation
The SCO, originally founded by China, Russia, and four other nations, now counts ten members, including India and Pakistan. Against this backdrop, and with global trade unsettled by unilateral tariff actions by the US, India reiterated the importance of an open, fair, inclusive and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system, with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core. Kumar stressed the need for a development-centred agenda, including a permanent solution on Public Stockholding (PSH) for food security, effective Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT) for developing countries, and the restoration of a fully functional, two-tier WTO dispute settlement system.
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Kumar also highlighted the critical role of services trade and the temporary movement of skilled professionals—consistent with national laws and transparency—in driving economic growth and boosting the participation of MSMEs in global value chains.
On the digital economy, India proposed SCO workstreams focused on fair, transparent and predictable regulatory frameworks, voluntary cooperation on best practices, and capacity-building for secure, innovation-led digitalisation. India also showcased its achievements in Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), including UPI for real-time payments, India Stack for identity and consent management, and ONDC for unbundled digital commerce. These initiatives were presented as low-cost, standards-based and replicable models to reduce MSME costs, expand access to markets, and enable real-time settlements, including through pilot projects among trusted partners.