'We are playing hockey, they are playing football': FM Sitharaman on China's trade barriers

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has described India and China as playing by different rules when it comes to trade, saying Indian exporters face barriers in China that Chinese companies do not face in India.

"We are playing hockey, they are playing football," Sitharaman said at Pondy Lit Fest 2026, explaining why she believes India and China are not competing on an equal footing.

Her comments came in response to a question about India's widening trade deficit with China and whether the imbalance could hold back the goal of a Viksit Bharat.

Sitharaman said the trade figures reflect what is actually recorded as exports and imports, but argued that the numbers do not capture the full picture. Some Indian goods eventually reach China through countries such as Vietnam because India does not get direct market access for those products, she said.

"Our export account would say that we are still not adequately exporting to China, but actually it is going to China. It never gets accounted like that because it goes to Vietnam, and from Vietnam it crosses the road and goes to China," she said.

"It should technically be in my account. I am exporting to China. It doesn't happen that way because - and I'll be blunt in saying this - we don't get market access for those goods which are of bulk value both in quantity and also the value that we can realise out of it. We don't get the market access to China, and there is no explanation for it."

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Sitharaman said India has been raising the issue of market access with China since 2014. She cited buffalo meat and generic pharmaceutical drugs as examples. Both are bulk goods that China buys from India, she said, but not directly.

"Whether it could be buffalo meat or it could be pharmaceutical generic drugs - both of which are bulk goods, which they buy from India but not directly. They go via Vietnam, they go via somebody else," she said.

The finance minister said this creates a gap between what India actually sells and what appears in its bilateral trade figures. "So there are items on which we have done better in the export, but because they constantly deny market access, yet consume our product, and I can't explain it to our bookkeepers that this entry is China's entry, meaning India's export to China. So, there are things like that."

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Why India says the rules are different

When asked about China's one big trade barrier, where it refuses to allow third-party adjudication when an exported or imported product is rejected, Sitharaman said that was only one of several problems.

She recalled India's efforts to get Chinese provinces to allow generic drugs from Indian manufacturers to be supplied directly to local healthcare centres.

"In the provinces in China, in their local healthcare requirements, generic drugs - in which we are leaders - were also identified. And we said we'll give you the generic drugs, and they can be directly sent to your local health care centers from where it can be distributed. We went to the extent of having quite a few of our Indian bulk drug manufacturers also talk on these subjects with the Chinese authorities. It didn't move an inch," she said.

The finance minister contrasted that with India's own market, where imported products can compete if consumers want them. She said that the Indian economy is so open that any item from that country or any other country can just come prove its worth here, and if it is cheap and durable, people will buy.

"So the consumer sets the requirement, whereas there (in China) the consumer may need it, but the authority sets the requirement and doesn't allow you to go in," she added. "The very nature of export-import business - we are playing hockey, they are playing football. So how do you negotiate in this kind of thing?"

China puts investment and exit restrictions

The FM also pointed to restrictions on people and companies leaving China as another example of what she sees as an uneven system.

She said China has passed a law under which people who have invested money in the country may not be able to leave when they want to. She also said investors cannot take their money or technology out without permission.

"If you are a domain expert who came and you are helping that industry to run because you are the technical expert, you can't go out without the permission of the government," she said. "You may be a Chinese national or you may be anybody else. Anyone getting out from there now will have to seek permission."

Sitharaman compared that with India's efforts to attract foreign investment.

"When most of us talk about drawing investment into India, make sure it becomes a friendly place. Yes, we have to work, we have to make India more investor-friendly, all that is there. But are we stopping people from getting out of the country? Are we saying you brought in technology, but you and your technology are both locked in here? No."

She questioned why the international community should apply the same expectations to India and China despite what she described as differences in their systems. "But the same international community will deal with them and deal with India equally. And that's what I find very difficult because people who lecture India about that you have to be a free, open economy, you'll have to do this, cannot say that there."