China may soon lose MFN status as payback for siding with Masood Azhar

New Delhi: Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM), the economic wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has called for retaliation against China for using veto in the United Nation Security Council (UNSC) to block the resolution to declare Masood Azhar as a global terrorist.

The SJM has called for revoking the status of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) for China, just as it was done for Pakistan after Pulwama, apart from demanding “further restriction on Chinese products, especially telecom electronics, defence equipment, citing security concerns”.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, SJM national co-convenor Ashwani Mahajan said India had been running a huge trade deficit with China, which was impacting Indian economy. India imports over 76 billion US dollar-worth of goods from China.

Also read: Why boycotting Chinese products won't work

Mahajan even cited a research undertaken by the SJM, which revealed that the “average tariff being applied to Chinese imports is much lower than bound tariff rates on various commodities”.

“Government of India needs to take immediate action to raise tariff duties on all Chinese imports to discourage Chinese imports. China which is already under economic stress, thanks to trade war initiated by US and other trade partners of China, will definitely realize the implications of unjust action of protecting terrorists. This action of India will help our and global fight against terrorism,” Mahajan said.

 Appreciating the measures taken hitherto by the government to hurt Chinese imports, Mahajan said, “It is appreciable that in the past, government of India under your leadership, has adopted various measures to curb Chinese imports by way of anti-dumping duties, countervailing duties, increasing in tariffs, imposition of tariffs and invoking reciprocity clause to stop Chinese companies taking infrastructure projects in India.”

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