News: China, India achieve $20 b trade goal before target

(BL 27/01/2007) Beijing - Bilateral trade between China and India hit an all-time record at $ 24.9 billion last year, exceeding the $ 20 billion goal two years ahead of target, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced here on Saturday. The two Asian giants, both among the world's fastest growing economies, signed an agreement in 2005, pledging to raise the bilateral trade volume to $ 20 billion by 2008. According to the ministry, India was China's 10th largest trade partner in 2006, while Indian statistics showed China was India's second largest trade partner after the US. Trade between two neighbours has soared from $ 2.91 billion in 2000 to $18.7 billion in 2005, an average annual rise of 45 per cent. As a symbol of their closer trade ties, the two countries reopened cross-border trade at the Nathu La Pass in Sikkim in July last year, 44 years after the practice was suspended in the wake of a short border war. According to Goldman Sachs, India will overtake the US to become the world's second largest economy, after China, by 2042.