India and China are likely to continue their engagement to address bilateral trade concerns ranging from structural imbalance to supply-chain issues, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said on Tuesday.
Agrawal’s comment comes after a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday on the sidelines of the Brics Summit in New Delhi. Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal also met his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the event.
“Leaders have already guided that both sides should work together to address each other’s concerns and also try to look at structural trade imbalance, supply-chain issues, and how to build trust between the two sides,” Agrawal said.
“Keeping the sense of the leaders’ guidance, I think both sides are engaged to understand each other’s position. This was the initial meeting, there will be more meetings subsequently to take these discussions forward,” he added.
China remains India’s leading import source, accounting for 17 per cent of the country’s total inbound shipments in financial year 2025-26 (FY26). India had a trade deficit of $112 billion with China in the last financial year.
India’s exports to China have also been showing considerable momentum in recent months. Shipments to the East Asian nation jumped nearly 37 per cent to $19.47 billion in FY26. With exports at $9.61 billion, China was among top three export destinations for India in April-August, 2026.
Engineering and electronic goods, petroleum products, organic and inorganic chemicals, and iron ore are driving India’s exports to China, Agrawal said.
Besides trade imbalance, Beijing’s supply curbs on rare earth and critical minerals remain a major trade concern for New Delhi.
“These discussions are happening after a long gap, so slowly each side will be able to come up with their issues and also their position,” Agrawal said.
“There has been improvement in bilateral relations between the two countries in the last one year — in terms of people-to-people movement, and direct connectivity. Gradually, confidence is building on both sides now,” he added.
India’s engagement with China has revived recently after the fallout between the two nations in 2020 following the Galwan Valley border conflict. While India did not suspend its trade with China in the aftermath of the conflict, New Delhi tightened the rules for Chinese investments into the country.
The just-concluded Brics Summit marked Xi’s first visit to India in seven years. Besides structural trade imbalance and supply-chain issues, facilitating meaningful and predictable market access also featured in discussions between Modi and Xi.
Apart from China, New Delhi also remains engaged with other regions to boost trade. India and New Zealand are expected to implement their free trade agreement (FTA) in the latter half of October, Agrawal said.
“The agreement will get operationalised in the latter half of October. We will be announcing the exact date soon after we have taken stock of the operationalisation procedure,” he said. Both sides had signed the deal in April.
India’s FTA with the European Union (EU) is also moving as per schedule. “We expect to sign it before the end of this year,” Agrawal said.
India is also holding the fourth round of FTA negotiations with Canada in New Delhi. The talks will conclude on Friday. Both sides have already concluded negotiations on two chapters, Agrawal added.
“It is going to be an intense week of negotiations (with Canada) because we are looking at a very tight timeline. Both sides are working to close the agreement by the end of this year or earlier,” he added.
