The ongoing trade dispute between the U.S and China will considerably impact the value chain systems of technological and agricultural products of Southeast and South Asian countries, a senior official representing the India’s microfinance industry said.
The trade battle between two world superpowers is expected to further affect countries, particularly engaged in manufacturing technological products such as Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore as well as countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan that mainly produce a wider variety of agricultural products.
This trade war scenario has basically created advantages as well as disadvantages, Usman Khan- Deputy CEO, Sahulat Microfinance Society in India told the Third Islamic Forum South Asia held in Colombo this week. “China is a giant in marketing and it is just processing our goods and supplying end products to the U.S and other markets. And Sri Lanka and India are leading players in spice and allied products sector. We can find vast opportunities in this segment in order to face possible impact from the U.S -China trade war,” he said.
He suggested that countries such as Sri Lanka and India, leading players in the spices and allied products sector and Pakistan, a well known player in dried fruit manufacturing sector should focus on processing final products in their respective countries rather than exporting spices in bulk form to various countries to be processed and exported to end consumers in the U.S and other markets.
“If we do start processing some of the products especially spices in our countries and supply to the end customer, in turn it will create huge economic benefits to Sri Lanka as well as India,” he said.
He said if china is going to involve in the world’s biggest war with the U.S and is not arranging its production according to the global demand, he said all the south Asian and South East Asian countries will be a dumping ground of cheaper products produced by China and it may affect domestic industries in these countries to a great extent.
Commenting on trade war and its possible impacts on apparel sector, he noted that apparel industry will take a big hit in the light of tariffs imposed by the U.S on China.
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