To increase exports to China in order to substantially lessen the trade imbalance, the Commerce Ministry has scheduled a brainstorming meeting this week with other line ministries and export promotion organisations to identify sectors and strategies to step up performance.

“Exports to China have increased but not to the extent India was hoping for. Commodities such as sugar and soybean, which hold a lot of promise, haven’t delivered yet. However, there are farm items such as grapes and pomegranate wher there is a big scope to increase exports. The meeting will focus on bringing together stakeholders so that the right strategy can be adopted,” a government official told BusinessLine.

Commerce & Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu is expected to chair the meeting scheduled on April 4. While India’s exports to China increased 36.87 per cent to $11.10 billion in the April-November 2018-19 period, performance decelerated in the next three months and export growth in April-February 2018-19 slowed 28.6 per cent to $15 billion.

India’s trade-deficit with China in 2017-18 was a whopping $63 billion, which prompted Chinese President Xi Jinping to promise to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at the Wuhan Summit last April, that his country would take steps to increase Indian imports of items such as rice, sugar, fruits, soybean and pharmaceuticals.