China, India target $100b in trade by 2015

China and India plan want annual bilateral trade to reach US$100 billion by 2015, up from US$42.4 billion last year, the Wall Street Journal reported. The announcement came after a meeting between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi Wednesday. Trade between the two nations is expected to reach US$60 billion in 2010, but the balance is skewed in China’s favor: it exported goods worth US$32.87 billion to India in the first 10 months of the year while imports totaled just US$17 billion. Wen has promised to further open up China’s large consumer market to Indian firms. India’s main export to China is iron ore, while it imports large amounts of high-value manufactured goods. Chinese and Indian companies have signed more than 40 deals worth a combined US$16 billion as part of Wen’s trip, although many were export orders for Chinese telecom and power-producing equipment.