The Indian government has announced that in order to protect its domestic solar industry, it will impose tariffs on imported solar cells from China and Malaysia in the next two years. In the first year of July 29, 2019, a 25% tariff will be imposed. The tax rate fell to 20% in the first six months of the year and further decreased to 15% in the last six months.
The news quickly caught the attention of domestic public opinion. First, because according to the Indian government's announcement, India does not impose tariffs on solar cells produced by other developing countries, except China and Malaysia. Second, Sino-US trade. At this moment, the war is still in a fierce battle. At this time, it is easy to doubt that when China stands at the forefront of unilateralism and trade protectionism, India is not taking the opportunity to 'cry the guns' against China.
This suspicion has a certain social basis. According to Pew's opinion polls, only 26% of Indian respondents in 2017 have positive positive perceptions of China. Although there is a lack of recent public opinion data on China's perception of India, last year. The confrontation between the two countries in the border areas has obviously increased the negative perception of the Chinese people about India.
During his trip to Asia in 2017, US President Trump publicly stated that he would pursue the 'Indo-Pacific Strategy' and regard India as the axis of the US 'Indo-Pacific Strategy'. The high-profile claim to help India rise. Since then, worry about the United States India’s 'collusion' to jointly contain China’s worries seems to have risen in China. However, in fact, the US-India relationship since Trump took office has shown a 'high opening and low walking' situation. The United States has adopted a Trump's policy of India, Trump has not visited India so far, and former Secretary of State Tillerson of 'Ley India' has also left. The second US-India foreign minister and defense chief participated in the 2+2 dialogue mechanism. After being cancelled, the understanding of the US 'unreliable' is rising in India.
More harmful is that Trump pursues the 'protectionism' and 'isolationism' trade policy, directly impacting the Modi government's 'Made in India' prospect. The more direct contradiction is reflected in Trump's visit to Indians. The US visa issue is not soft, threatening to impose 'joint sanctions' on countries that violate the US sanctions against Iran. India is the first to bear the brunt. It is against this background that it has strengthened the driving force for China and India to promote international and regional cooperation. Therefore, at the Golden Brick Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, which was recently concluded, the leaders of both countries expressed support for the multilateral trading system and opposed protectionism.
India imposes tariffs on China's solar cells. On the one hand, more than 90% of India's solar energy equipment is imported from China. India does not want to form a complete dependence on China. On the other hand, the Modi government is pursuing 'Made in India'. The Modi government is unwilling to continue to maintain the form of large-scale imports of Chinese manufactured goods.
The fact that India’s tariff on Chinese solar cells is understood as India’s and the United States’ 'encirclement' China is obviously over-interpreted. Of course, in the context of the cloud of trade protectionism, India as a 'brick' One of the member states, economic development benefits from the global multilateral free trade system. At this time, it should be more with China to shoulder the burden of defending the multilateral free trade system, instead of focusing only on the domestic one-acre three-point land.
