The China and US took another perilous step towards an outright trade war, and this war is beneficial to India. This war provide opportunity for India oilseed meal, cotton and maize producers in the Asian country's market.
The head of research for Edelweiss Agri value chain Ltd. Prerana Desai said, "If the export price remains competitive, a small window for agri-export could open for Indian exporters of oilseeds meals-soya meal and mustard, cotton and maize. China imposed new tariffs of up to 25% on 106 US products, earlier increasing tariffs on 128 US products, stepping up a trade war between the two largest economics. The US Trade Representation had announced a 25% tariff on 1300 Chinese product.''
The President of the Cotton Association of India Atul Ganatra said that, "India is second largest exporter of cotton after the US. Of the 5 million bales of cotton imported by China, 40% was from the US. With China imposing 25% duty on cotton from US, we can leverage our position. There is no duty on import of Indian cotton in China and hence we will be cheaper than US cotton.''
Anand Popat of the Saurashtra Ginners Association said Indian cotton was priced competitively compared with Australia and African cotton. Companies said, "Soya bean is another commodity that India would be able to supply to the Chinese market once it removes restriction of Indian soyabean trade. Currently US meet 39% of China's total demand of 93.4 millions of soya beans."
This is a great opportunity for Indian companies to export soya bean meals- used in livestock and poultry feed industry to China. The Ministry of Commerce & Industry is taking up the issue with China to remove restrictions in Indian soya meal trade. "Also, we see new market in Japan, South Korea and Vietnam, where the Chinese are exporting to small companies, " said Davish Jain, Chairman of the soya bean processor Association of India.
