China India Photo:VCG

 
India's latest antidumping duties on five types of Chinese goods are protectionist in nature and may not fare well with the country's industries by taking away the option of choosing cost effective goods, Chinese analysts said on Monday.

The Indian government could have miscalculated if its industry is not capable of providing enough domestic supply. Additionally, the high tariffs drove away Chinese products, as inflation climbed in the wake of the pandemic and major  stimulus packages in other countries could mean difficulties for Indian consumers.

India has imposed antidumping duties on five Chinese products for five years, including some aluminum goods and chemicals, to "guard local manufacturers from cheap imports from the neighboring country," Indian media news outlet the Economic Times reported over the weekend.

Chinese analysts said the Indian moves are protectionist in nature and could derive from a strategy by the Indian government to decouple or slash its economic reliance on Chinese goods.

The move from India also came on the heels of  a tax probe conducted by the local authorities that involved some of the best-selling Chinese mobile phone brands. However, experts said the trade measures are unlikely to have any connection with the tax probe. 

The Modi government is under fire from some voices within India who are unsatisfied with the country's growing trade deficit with China and are blind toward the win-win economic relationship between both sides.

Lin Minwang,  professor at the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Monday that the move, even though it is related to a matter of trade, might reflect some of India's ambition to be self-reliant on economic matters and its urge to surpass China in areas such as solar power. 

A chemical industry insider said that silicone sealant, one of the five types of goods facing tariffs, is used in the production of glass curtainwalls.

According to data from China's General Administration of Customs, the India-China bilateral trade totaled $114.263 billion, up 46.4 percent year-on-year, from January to November while India's imports from China grew 49 percent to $87.91 billion.

In 2020, India curbed imports of Chinese power equipment on so-called security grounds.