New Delhi: China on Monday said that India’s new FDI rules violates the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s principle and is against the general trend of liberalization.
In a statement, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in India Ji Rong said, “the additional barriers set by Indian side for investors from specific countries violate WTO’s principle of non-discrimination, and go against the general trend of liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment”.
“More importantly, they do not conform to the consensus of G20 leaders and trade ministers to realize a free, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent, predictable and stable trade and investment environment, and to keep our markets open. Companies make choices based on market principles. We hope India would revise relevant discriminatory practices, treat investments from different countries equally, and foster an open, fair and equitable business environment” he said.
#Chinese investment supports #India‘s industry development, creats jobs & promotes win-win cooperation. Our companies actively helps India fight #COVID19. Hope India revise the discriminatory practices & foster open, fair & equitable business environment. https://t.co/Wc94SOs0LH
— Ji Rong (@ChinaSpox_India) April 20, 2020
“As of December 2019, China’s cumulative investment in India has exceeded 8 billion US dollars, far more than the total investments of India’s other border-sharing countries. The impact of the policy on Chinese investors is clear. Chinese investment has driven the development of India’s industries, such as mobile phone, household electrical appliances, infrastructure and automobile, creating a large number of jobs in India, and promoting mutual beneficial and win-win cooperation. Chinese enterprises actively made donations to help India fight COVID-19 epidemic” he said.
On April 18, India’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) revised its foreign investment policy, making its mandatory for FDI proposals by neighboring countries to go through the government route.
According to India’s amended FDI policy “An entity of a country, which shares land border with India or where the beneficial owner of an investment into India is situated in or is a citizen of any such country, can invest only under the Government route”.
