Showing anger against the stance of China which is backing Pakistan even though it is sponsoring terrorist activities in Kashmir and hampering India’s prospects for entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group, traders in Gujarat have decided to boycott Chinese products.
Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), has appealed to people to boycott Chinese products.
“Chinese products primarily include articles made in cottage and small industries such as fire crackers, lighting, bulbs, toys, ceramic products, thread for kite flying and balloons. It is a loss for our units,” stated a circular to 2,983 of its direct members and 176 trade and industry affiliates.
“We must send a strong signal to China by boycotting their products. Currently the Chinese economy is in a downturn and boycott would send a strong signal that its support for Pakistan and terrorists like Masood Azhar cannot be tolerated”, Bipin Patel, GCCI president said.
According to GCCI, China “dumps” goods, including pharmaceutical and chemicals, worth over Rs 12,000 crore every year in the State.
Ironically, the call for boycott comes at a time when a the Gujarat Government delegation is in China to invite investors for its biennial mega investment event ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ slated for January next.
Though the state chief minister Vijay Rupani expressed support, "Our mantra has always been for swadeshi,” officially no word has come out as yet.
Gujarat, like many other states, already has big Chinese investment in the field of steel, infrastructure, energy and communications. Severalindustry from the state, like ceramics tiles makers of Morbi, toooutsource their manufacturing to China for cost advantage. “We canprepare a long-term strategy to deal with such Chinese things in whichwe lag technologically,” Patel said.
GCCI is now thinking of approaching state and Central governments withrepresentations seeking ban or anti-dumping duty on Chinese productsand raw material. However, some feel that it would be a while beforewe can completely stall the $52 billion trade between the two nations. “India has extended Most Favoured Nation status to China and wasworking to take the bilateral trade to $100 billion.