Sitharaman calls China's non-tariff barriers the biggest hurdle in India-China trade

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday, October 16, that non-tariff barriers are the biggest hurdle in trade between India and China, and that the trade balance with China is moving further against India. She was speaking in an interaction with Michael Kugelman of the Atlantic Council on the sidelines of the World Bank-IMF annual meetings in Bangkok, according to the Sentinel.

What she said

ThePrint reports that Sitharaman said the balance is against India and "growing exponentially", and that China uses non-tariff barriers without hesitation. She cited phytosanitary rules, which are meant to guard against plant pests and diseases, as one obstacle. She named generic medicines, beef and vegetables as products with large potential in China that face restrictions. The Sentinel adds perishables to that list.

The Sentinel reports that she said India has pressed for market access for about a decade with limited progress, and that India has not responded with countervailing duties or counter-barriers. She said India prefers to sit and talk, which she described as sometimes very tiresome, and that this makes it hard to correct the imbalance.

The deficit figure

The reports give the deficit without a source for the figure. ThePrint says it has passed $100 billion so far this year. Business Today says it exceeded $100 billion in the first nine months of 2026, and notes that its article gives no bilateral export or import numbers. The Free Press Journal says Sitharaman's own quoted remarks did not include a figure. A separate Free Press Journal report says the deficit with China reportedly reached a record $112 billion in 2025-26, which is a full-year figure for a different period.

Other remarks

Sitharaman described India's trade agreements with ASEAN countries as heavily skewed against India, according to ThePrint. She said India intends to keep the ASEAN agreement but that its terms need revision. ThePrint and the Free Press Journal also report that her comments came days after External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said India was not getting a level playing field in China.

Context

The Free Press Journal and ThePrint note that ties worsened after the 2020 border clash, which led to curbs on investment and business engagement, and that both sides have since resumed high-level engagement. Business Today notes that how far the barriers explain the deficit would need to be assessed alongside the competitiveness of Indian products and the make-up of trade.

What is not in the reports

The reports read for this article carry no response from the Chinese government.