India-China Bilateral Trade Touched Historic High of USD 84.44 Billion in 2017

The bilateral trade in 2017 rose by 18.63 per cent year-on-year to reach USD 84.44 billion. It is regarded as a landmark as the volume of bilateral trade for the first time touched USD 80 billion, well above the USD 71.18 billion registered last year. The trade touched historic high despite bilateral tensions over a number of issues including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, China blocking India’s efforts to bring about a UN ban on Jaish-e-Muhammad leader Masood Azhar, Beijing blocking India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) as well as the longest military standoff at Doklam lasting 73 days.

The bilateral trade stagnated around USD 70 billion for several years despite the leaders of both the countries setting USD 100 billion as target for 2015. Though it is still about USD 20 billion short, officials on both sides expect trade and Chinese investments in India to pick up further this year as both the governments are trying to scale down tensions and step-up the normalisation process.