Among the major Indian companies which exchanged MoU documents with Chinese corporations were Reliance Industries Ltd, Sterlite Industries Ltd., Ranbaxy, Adari Wimar Ltd., Balco, Bharat Mining Company and TT Ltd.

The MoU were signed in the presence of the visiting Chinese vice minister of commerce, Gao Hucheng, and the joint secretary in the Indian commerce ministry, Dinesh Sharma at a business meeting organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

Hucheng said that the Chinese response came in the wake of the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh's visit to China last year where he had expressed the hope that the Chinese Government would take positive steps to redress the trade imbalance of $16 billon against India by sourcing Indian products for the Chinese market.

China, he said, was a huge market and invited Indian investors and entrepreneurs to visit China and determine the Indian products that would appeal to the Chinese people.

The FICCI general secretary, Amit Mitra proposed that in order to balance the trade between the two countries and build sustainable trade relations, the two Governments could look at five or six items which were being competitively produced by India and being exported to the US, Europe and Japan. These identified thrust items would be acceptable in the Chinese market because of the competitive price and India would get easy access to the Chinese market.

The joint secretary in the Indian commerce ministry, Dinesh Sharma pointed out that China was India's largest trading partner and currently India's exports consisted mainly of raw materials and low value products. Of the $37.8 billion total bilateral trade` volume in 2007-08, India's exports were valued at $11 billion and imports from China at $27 billion. As high as 50% of the value of exports were accounted for by iron ore. The bilateral trade marked an increase of 47% over that in 2006-07

Sharma said, the MoUs signed today would strengthen India-China B2B ties and trigger more close trade exchanges to address the problem of trade imbalance and make the trade basket more diversified and widespread.

On Friday the Indian commerce minister, Kamal Nath interacting with Hucheng, said that there were enormous opportunities for both India and China in expanding trade in services particularly in construction and engineering, education, entertainment, financial services, IT & IT-enabled services, transport, tourism and health. Both sides discussed about holding the 8th Joint Economic Group (JEG) at a mutually convenient date. The 7th JEG meeting was held in March 2006.

After the opening of the third border trade point between India and China, the Chinese side has been looking for expanding the scope of trade through Nathu La. In July 2007, the Indian side proposed an addition of 24 more commodities tradable through Nathu La, mainly food items. In turn, the Chinese side proposed 36 commodities including machinery, motor cycles and electrical appliances.

China ranks 64th and the cumulative FDI inflows stood at $4.7 million. The top sectors attracting FDI inflows (January 2000 to March 2008) from China are trading, industrial machinery, mining, hotel and tourism and drugs and pharmaceuticals. The top sectors attracting technology from China are metallurgical industries, chemicals (other than fertilizers), electrical equipments, industrial machinery and drugs & pharmaceuticals.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on India-China Trade Remedy Cooperation Mechanism, was signed by the Indian commerce secretary GK. Pillai and Hucheng.

The Indian minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh said that China was India's biggest trading partner and India was 10th biggest trade partner for China. He said that India was taking all necessary steps for diversifying its trade basket. During the interaction with the Chinese business delegation on Saturday Ramesh said that India and China should look ahead to explore the possibility of commencing discussions on a mutually beneficial RTA that meets the common aspirations of both countries.

As regards market access for Indian agricultural products into China, especially fruits and vegetables, Ramesh noted that the Chinese side has allowed entry for only 3 items – mangoes, grapes and bitter-gourd – out of 17 and hoped that the rest of the pending fruits and vegetables would be grouped into two groups for a simultaneous finalization of SPS protocols.

Both sides noted that there is a need to increase bilateral investments between the two countries, particularly in sectors like petrochemicals, steel, healthcare, IT automobiles, biotechnology, advanced materials, renewable energy and low carbon technologies.