By: Talat Mohsin

The Confederation of All India Trade (CAIT) on Sunday gave a call for the boycott of Chinese products and has also demanded high custom duties of up to 500% on these goods. The CAIT has taken these steps to condemn China’s act of supporting Pakistan’s case against India’s actions on Jammu and Kashmir at the UNSC (United Nations Security Council).

It said that when China supported and presented Pakistan’s case on the scrapping of article 370 which gave special rights to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, it placed itself amongst the probable enemies of the state.
CAIT National President BC Bhartiya and secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said in a statement- “The import from China in 2017-18 was about 90 billion dollars. Trade with China constitutes more than 40 per cent of total trade deficit which shows that India is a very big market for China and instead of supporting genuine stand of India, it always takes the side of Pakistan even without any logical reason and therefore it is the time when Indian traders and importers should began boycotting Chinese goods.”

The issue will be discussed in a national conference of traders from all states and will be held by the CAIT on August 29.
The CAIT has also requested the government to levy custom duty from 300 to 500 per cent on the import of Chinese goods.

“China has become habitual in supporting Pakistan every matter which is against India and therefore now the time has come when we should reduce our dependence on Chinese goods” said the CAIT. It has also urged the government to seriously consider this issue and take the steps to minimise China’s export to India.