NEW DELHI: India's eastern neighbour China has emerged as its biggest trading partner in the current fiscal replacing the UAE and pushing it to the third spot, according to a study conducted by PHD Chamber of Commerce.

India-China trade has reached $49.5 billion with 8.7% share in India's total trade, while the US comes second at $46 billion with 8.1% share and the UAE third at $45.4 billion with 8% share during the first nine months of the current fiscal, the study revealed.

The UAE was India's biggest trading partner in the 2012-13 fiscal.

India's trade (exports and imports) with China was only of $7 billion in 2004 which rose to $38 billion in 2008 and to $65 billion in 2013.

In contrast to the national economies, China and India contrasts are one of the hottest topics. They have the equivalent population and both of them are the world's two fastest-growing major economies which are included in the BRIC countries. Their economic grows rapidly because of the economic reforms.

However, interestingly, the two countries have very different development models. India, whose economic reform is 10 years slower than China, has developed a totally different mode with China. Compared with "Made in China", India's economic mode may be referred to "the Indian consumption". Its economy feature is based on services (especially IT outsourcing) and consumer-oriented, forming the consumer-driven economic mode.

"India's direction of foreign trade has exhibited a structural shift during the last decade. Trade volume and trade share of emerging and developing economies has increased while the share of conventional trading partners has showed a declining trend," PHD chamber president Sharad Jaipuria said.

However, with the revival of demand in advanced economies, the US has re-emerged as India's top exports destination. India's exports to the US during April-Dec 2013 stood at $29.3 billion followed by the UAE at $22.3 billion and China at $10.8 billion. In the 2012-13 fiscal, UAE was India's top exports destination followed by the US and Singapore, the study pointed out.

Besides, UK and Germany have come down in the list of the top export destinations, while Belgium and Italy are out of the list. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia and Netherlands have made it to the list of top ten export destinations.

One significant development in India's import scenario is the emergence of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq and Switzerland amongst the country's top ten import sources.

China and India are the world's most populous countries which have the world's largest consumer markets. Both of them should hold the more dynamic economic cooperation.