Muristek
Beijing, May 31
China on Tuesday insisted that it is still India's biggest trade partner in 2021-22 as per its figures and attributed the "disparity" to different methods of calculating the trade volume by New Delhi and Beijing while referring to reports that the US has unseated it to take the top slot.
"According to the statistics of Chinese competent authorities, bilateral trade volume between China and India stood at USD 125.66 billion in 2021," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing when asked about reports of the US overtaking China to become the largest trade partner of India in 2021-22. "China remains the largest trade partner of India and for the first time the bilateral trade exceeded USD 100 billion in 2021," Zhao said.
"The disparity in trade figures published by China and India is a result of different statistical measurement scales," he said. China follows the financial year from January to December, while India calculates the same from April to March every year.