Nation must know how dependent it has become on those with hostile interest

Commerce minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said India has become dependent on a country which has "inimical interests" and it is important that it realises this.

Replying to supplementaries during question hour in the Rajya Sabha, he said the high trade deficit of USD 48.5 billion in trade between India and China inherited in 2013-14 cannot be ignored and the government is now taking steps to promote domestic manufacturing sector.

He said the India-China trade in 2000-2001 was barely USD 2 billion and that position continued till 2002-03 where it increased at best to about USD 5 Billion.

"At that time the trade deficit was just about USD 1 billion. I don't know what happened after that, but suddenly after 2003-04 the USD 1 billion trade defict over the next ten years increased to USD 36 billion in ten years," he told the house.

The entire country, he claimed, became a large marketplace inviting sub-standard, opaquely priced, non-transparent valued goods into the country in a big ...