Boycott of Chinese goods: Traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has urged traders to boycott Chinese goods this festive season in order to cost China Rs 1 lakh crore of trade in terms of non-import of festive and other goods by traders and importers. On the other hand, the festive season beginning from Raksha Bandhan till Diwali is expected to see around Rs 3 lakh crore business for traders.
“CAIT is actively working since 2020 on its boycott of Chinese products campaign across the country. Last year, China suffered a loss of festive business of about Rs 75 crores,” CAIT said in a statement. The representative body for traders will launch a campaign on September 1 to boycott Chinese goods.
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Citing a recent survey conducted by CAIT Research & Trade Development Society, a research arm of CAIT in 20 cities of different States, BC Bhartia, National President and Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General CAIT said so far no order of Diwali goods, firecrackers or other like items have been placed with China by Indian traders or importers.
CAIT said traders have a substantial stock of Indian goods to meet festive requirements.
According to CAIT, the core sectors where Chinese goods have been replaced by Indian goods are FMCG goods, consumer durables, toys, consumer electronics, electrical appliances, kitchen articles and accessories, gift items, personal consumables, confectionary items, home furnishing, tapestry, utensils, footwear, watches, furniture and fixtures, garments, fashion apparels, cloth, home decoration goods, Diwali pooja goods including clay diyas, wall hangings, etc.
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Earlier this year also, ahead of the Holi festival, CAIT had expected around Rs 25,000 crore of business for traders and retailers, up by approximately 25 per cent from the previous year’s sales. Around Rs 1,500 crore worth of business was estimated to come from the sale of goods in Delhi itself with no sale of Chinese goods unlike earlier when the import of Holi-related goods — primarily, colours, balloons and toys — used to be worth around Rs 10,000 crore annually.
Even as CAIT has called for a boycott of Chinese goods, the import of Chinese goods increased in the financial year 2022-23. As per the provisional data from the commerce ministry, while India’s exports to China declined by around 28 per cent to $15.32 billion in 2022-23, the imports jumped by 4.16 per cent to $98.51 billion in the previous fiscal. The trade gap between the two countries had widened to $83.2 billion in FY23 in comparison to $72.91 billion in 2021-22.