According to the statistics of the China Trade Remedy Network of the Ministry of Commerce, India launched 22 trade remedy investigations against China in 2023, becoming the country with the largest number of trade remedy investigations against China in the world that year. The United States and the European Union were second and third, with 12 and nine cases, respectively. In contrast, in 2023, China launched only one trade remedy investigation against other countries and regions, that is, in July last year, China announced an anti-dumping investigation on imports of propionic acid originating in the United States.
The 22 trade remedy investigations initiated by India against China include 20 anti-dumping cases, one anti-subsidy case and one safeguard case. Among them, the top three industries are chemical raw materials and products industry 10 cases, metal products industry 4 cases, non-metal products industry 2 cases. Statistics show that in 2023, other countries and regions launched 87 trade remedy cases against China, the top three India, the United States and the European Union with a total of 43 cases, accounting for 50% of them. Among them, India accounted for a quarter with 22 cases, becoming the country that initiated the most trade remedy investigations against China. At the end of last year, the Shanghai Pudong International Chamber of Commerce mentioned in the "Dynamic Briefing on International Trade remedy Rules" that India's domestic trade protectionism forces are deeply rooted, and it frequently launches trade frictions and trade remedy measures abroad. Since 2014, the number of trade remedy cases filed in India is second only to the United States in the world. Especially in recent years, with the widening trade deficit between China and India, India's trade friction with China has become increasingly fierce. Only in late September 2023, India launched more than 10 anti-dumping investigations against China in 10 days.
Data from the China Trade Remedy Information Network show that in recent years, India's trade remedy measures against China have been high and far ahead of other countries. Liu Xiaoxue, deputy director of the South Asia Research Center of the Institute of Asia-Pacific and Global Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with the Global Times that India not only wants to reverse the huge trade deficit with China for a long time, but also takes various measures to strengthen the protection of domestic industries driven by the strategic goal of "Make in India". Therefore, it has been one of the countries that have conducted the most trade remedy investigations against China. In 2023, LAN Jianxue, director of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies of the China Institute of International Studies, mentioned in the Evolution and Way Out of China-India Relations that for a long time, India's dream of a great power has always been shrouded in a strong "China complex", that is, China is the bottom line of reference for India's pursuit of great power status, but also its competitor or surpassing object of great power status, and also the key external cause affecting its rise. After the Galavan Valley incident in June 2020, China-India relations suffered the most serious impact since the normalization of relations in 1988, and have been stuck in a state of "stagnation and friction" for a long time. This is when India began to intensify artificial measures to impede normal bilateral trade and investment.
Lou Chunhao, executive director of the South Asia Institute of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, wrote on December 27 last year that India's "economic and trade decoupling" from China is almost impossible, no matter from the perspective of Sino-Indian economic and trade relations or from the global market. He believes that China's export of goods to India is highly concentrated, high value-added, and even occupies an absolute dominant position in the fields of communication equipment, raw materials and other fields. India cannot develop its manufacturing industry without China's supply chain; In addition, Indian people are more sensitive to the price of goods, which also makes inexpensive Chinese goods in India quite a market. Liu Xiaoxue also told the Global Times reporter that the expanding trade volume between China and India precisely shows that the industrial chain of the two countries is very closely integrated, which makes India unable to achieve "decoupling" from China in the short term. Liu Xiaoxue believes that strengthening economic and trade cooperation with China is precisely the favorable conditions for realizing "Make in India", and can realize the mutual benefit of the two countries. In the face of India's frequent trade restrictions, the Shanghai Pudong International Chamber of Commerce pointed out that in practice, the Indian Ministry of Finance will eventually make a decision not to take anti-dumping measures after considering the public interest of downstream users. Therefore, if Chinese enterprises can actively collaborate with Indian importers and downstream industry entities to clarify to the Ministry of Finance of India that the implementation of anti-dumping measures is not in the public interest of India from the perspective of public interest and industrial chain balance, it will likely prompt the Ministry of Finance of India to make a decision in favor of Chinese enterprises.
