CAIT to launch campaign to boycott Chinese goods

New Delhi: Traders' body CAIT on Sunday said it would launch a nationwide campaign to boycott Chinese goods across the country from June 10.

The campaign call by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which claims to represent 7 crore traders and 40,000 trade associations, comes amid border tensions between India and China.

Under the campaign, CAIT will not only motivate traders to not sell Chinese goods but also urge Indian consumers to buy indigenous products in place of Chinese goods, and in this way Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call 'Vocal for Local' will also be fructified, the traders' body said in a statement.

CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said the traders' body has been continuously campaigning from time to time for boycotting Chinese products for the last four years on the back of government's strong push for 'Make in India' programme.

"As a result of these initiatives, imports from China have dropped from USD 76 billion in 2017-18 to USD 70 billion at present. This USD 6 billion import decline tells the true story of the use of indigenous goods and changing consumer sentiments," Khandelwal said.

He said through efforts like these, CAIT is eyeing a reduction in India's imports of Chinese goods by about USD 13 billion (around Rs 1 lakh crore) by December 2021, and has prepared a comprehensive list of about 3,000 products imported from China for which Indian substitutes and alternatives are easily available.