The India-China trade deficit increased by 34 per cent to reach $12 billion in the first five months of the year, presenting a bleak picture for Indian exports as bilateral trade continued to decline, denting hopes of achieving a trade volume of $100 billion by 2015.

According to the data released by Chinese Customs, the India-China bilateral trade touched $26.5 billion till May 2013.

The trade deficit for India has widened year-on-year to $12 billion, up by 34 per cent. The trade volume was lowered by over $two billion compared to last year.

Bilateral trade fell to about $66.7 billion last year from around $74 billion in 2012. The trade deficit touched about $30 billion last year, causing concerns in India.

While the Chinese exports registered marginal increase the bilateral trade numbers are falling.

Exports have declined substantially while imports have risen marginally, officials here said.

Much to the disquiet of India, its main items of exports like cotton, iron ore and copper have continued their downward slide.

Iron ore declined sharply by 76 per cent to $595.42 million. Cotton and copper declined year-on-year by 40 per cent to $1.39 billion and 24 per cent to $688.53 million respectively.

India’s overall share in Chinese exports has dropped to under 1 per cent from 1.33 per cent, the data showed.

Cotton yarn and diamonds are the other two exports that rounded off the top five. Cotton yarn is the sole bright spot showing a jump of 115 per cent to reach a value of $740 million.

Diamonds have increased at a modest 14 per cent to record $562.1 million.

The Chinese exports to India maintained an even keel, rising by 2.7 per cent year-on-year.

The declining trade as well the promise held out by the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in the last month’s visit to New Delhi to provide more market access to Indian goods were the focus of discussions between the two countries in the past few weeks.

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