Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters that non-tariff barriers imposed by Beijing have posed the most persistent obstacle to Indian exports, pointing to restricted entry for goods such as generic medicines, bovine meat, and agricultural products despite what she described as considerable demand on the Chinese side — a pattern she said has contributed to a widening trade gap — and added that over the past decade her government has repeatedly pressed the case for greater market access, only to find those barriers applied without hesitation.
Sitharaman, speaking at an Atlantic Council event held on the margins of the International Monetary Fund-World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, told the audience that non-tariff barriers stand as the foremost obstacle to trade flows between India and China.
Sitharaman noted that the trade gap between India and China had widened considerably, adding that India had made repeated overtures for entry into markets where its goods held a competitive edge — yet tangible headway remained elusive even as room existed for talks on sanitary and phytosanitary standards alongside other regulatory concerns.
Over the decade stretching from FY16 to FY26, the gap between what India buys from China and what it sells back widened from $52.7 billion to $112 billion — a figure that represents roughly twice the earlier shortfall.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal's comments, in which he described an active push to rebuild ties with China while noting the process was still under way and that longstanding concerns had influenced the bilateral relationship, came just days before Sitharaman's own remarks on the matter. Goyal told a television news forum that efforts to rebuild ties with China were under way, though the path ahead had yet to fully take shape.
The finance minister indicated that, rather than imposing retaliatory trade measures to narrow the gap with China, the country had chosen a path of dialogue — one the minister described as more consistent with how trade disputes are typically handled.
Sitharaman noted that the process can be tedious at times, yet the preference remains to work through that diplomatic channel rather than deploying retaliatory tools such as countervailing duties or non-tariff barriers in response to the trade restrictions imposed by the other side.
Sitharaman went on to push for a reassessment of the trade pact between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), contending that the arrangement has delivered a disproportionate share of its gains to the bloc rather than to India. Over ten years on from the treaty's signing, she argued that its effects on local manufacturers and importers warrant a thorough review, adding that the arrangement should continue in a revised form.
"Any outcome of this nature must not fall disproportionately on one party," she argued.
By the close of FY26, the gap between what India imported from Asean nations and what it exported to them had widened past the $50 billion threshold.
Sitharaman also put forward a rationale for keeping India outside the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, telling the audience that the potential benefits of membership had not appeared compelling enough to warrant joining. "We took a conscious call to stay out of RCEP because we didn't think it was going to do any help for us," she said.
Addressing exporters directly, Sitharaman conveyed that global trade upheaval had opened doors rather than closed them, with businesses pivoting toward new buyer relationships — even in markets that had previously placed steep tariffs on goods from India. Goods and services exports rose 23 per cent in September, she noted, pointing to the figures as a measure of how exporters had held their ground against a challenging global backdrop, and she added that they had managed to open up a range of new destination markets — including those that had placed steep tariffs on the country's products — and had done so with considerable efficiency.
The finance minister outlined a dual-track approach, affirming a commitment to multilateral trade while noting that bilateral agreements were being pursued at a faster pace given the limited forward movement in global trade negotiations, and adding in a statement that a belief in multilateralism underpinned the position. Strengthening trade through bilateral agreements was also a priority she highlighted, pointing to the pressures of the prevailing global climate as the driving rationale.
Trading relationships with the European Union, New Zealand, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates were among the examples she put forward, along with ongoing talks with Canada, noting that readiness on both sides to act had allowed long-stalled discussions to advance.
Addressing the bilateral trade talks, Sitharaman expressed her desire for a deal between India and the United States to be wrapped up without delay, a view that aligned with remarks Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal had put forward, adding that finalising such an arrangement would serve the broader interests of global commerce as well as the two countries' trading relationship.
