The Swadeshi Jagaran Manch on Thursday asked the Narendra Modi government to “retaliate against China” for blocking a United Nation Security Council resolution to declare Jaish-e-Muhammad chief Masood Azhar as global terrorist.
“This action of China is highly deplorable and is being criticised and seen as an act against the global struggle on terrorism. Not only people of India, even international community has criticised this action of China. This is the time to make use of all possible measures, diplomatic and economic, to make China conscious of the repercussions of its irresponsible action,” stated SJM national convener Ashwini Mahajan.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, he stated: “India has been importing more than 76 billion US dollars worth of goods from China and has been running huge trade deficit with China, which is impacting our economy in general and manufacturing in particular. It is appreciable that in the past government of India under your leadership, has adopted various measures to curb Chinese imports by way of anti-dumping duties, countervailing duties, increasing in tariffs, imposition of tariffs and invoking reciprocity clause to stop Chinese companies taking infrastructure projects in India.”
According to SJM, it is high time that the country withdrew most favoured nation (MFN) status to China. It also called upon government to impose further restriction on Chinese products, especially telecom electronics, defence equipment, citing security concerns. “We understand that measures adopted previously, though have impacted Chinese imports, however, there is a need to make more efforts further to discourage Chinese imports. The research undertaken by Swadeshi Jagran Manch reveals that they average tariff being applied on Chinese imports is much lower than bound tariff rates on various commodities. Government of India needs to take immediate action to raise tariff duties on all Chinese imports to discourage Chinese imports. China which is already under economic stress, thanks to trade war initiated by US and other trade partners of China, will definitely realize the implications of unjust action of protecting terrorists. This action of India will help our and global fight against terrorism.”
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