The Indian government on Monday asked China to open up its markets for its basmati rice, bovine meat and seven varieties of fruits and vegetables to deliver on its promise to help the country reduce the heavy trade imbalance.
Visiting minister of state for agriculture KV Thomas urged his counterpart Niu Dun to open up Chinese markets for more agro products from India.
He told Niu that Chinese officials who conducted pest-control tests for Basmati okayed its imports and now should speed up permission for the same. "I have also requested Niu to import Indian bovine meat, which China requires in large quantities as WHO has already granted certificate clearing problems relating to foot and mouth disease in India,"
Thomas who is on a six-day visit to China told PTI after the talks. He said he urged Niu to open up Chinese markets for seven varieties of fruits and vegetables.
"China has already granted access to our mangoes, gapes and bitter gourd and I requested to open up for our fruits and vegetables also," said Thomas.
The fruits which India sought market access included palm granite, papaya, chikku, pineapple, guavas, musk melon, water melon and custard apple. He also urged China to import vegetables like okra, cucumber, gherkins, cabbage, capsicum, brinjal and beans from India.
"It will be good if China provides market access to these goods as it would enable India to reduce the huge trade imbalance," he said. Thomas said he has also informed his Niu that China's urea export to India is erratic and asked to be streamlined.
The response is positive and Niu promised to look into all the issues raised, Thomas said. Ambassador to China S Jaishankar who assisted Thomas at the talks said India is trying to expand the basket of its exports to China to build on Beijing's promise to help New Delhi reduce trade gap that rose to around $16 billion last year.
Chinese president Hu Jintao has promised to look into New Delhi's concerns in this regard during his meeting with President Pratibha Patil late last month. Besides making a case for China to import more Indian farm items, Thomas who is accompanied by FCI and Central Warehousing Corporation officials has also discussed with Niu the issues relating to food security and grain storage.
On Tuesday, Thomas would meet administrator of Chinas state administration of grains (SAG) to discuss cooperation in grain storage in which China has high technology and good experience.
He will also visit academy of state administration of grains and standards and quality centre of SAG in Beijing. He would later to visit the Dalian Commodity Exchange regarded as the largest in Asia and second largest in the world.
Thomas would also visit the Beiliang Port which has world-class grain terminal with four deep-water berths capable of handling ships with 80,000 DWT besides capacity to handle 12mt and storage capacity of 2mt in silo blocks.
He will also visit Shanghai Liangyou Group in Shanghai-- the largest Chinese food firm in areas of food and oil storage, processing, bulk trade, import and export, chain sales, assets management and entity investment.
