New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS) Trade between India and China will likely cross the $100-billion mark in the next five years, even as trade imbalance remains in favour of China, a top government official said Friday.”China is now India’s No.1 trade partner with figures expected to cross $50 billion this year and double in the next five years,” said Commerce Secretary G.K. Pillai at a joint press conference along with Chinese vice-chairman of commerce Gao Hucheng.

Gao is in New Delhi with a 60-member business delegation, which will sign deals in sectors such as chemicals, textiles, general electric equipment, minerals, steel and cement on Saturday.

According to Pillai, business worth hundreds of millions of dollars is expected to be inked.

Representatives from the two countries also signed an agreement aimed at ensuring transparency and better understanding of technical and other matters related to anti-dumping and trade barriers.

Anti-dumping is a trade law that enables action to be taken against goods being exported at unfairly low prices. India had imposed the maximum measures and ordered the highest number of probes into dumping by different countries, including China, between July 1 and Dec 31, 2007.

The two sides are also keen to increase cooperation in the area of infrastructure, especially telecommunication, power generation and transport.

“We want more trade ties between the two countries. We would expand cross-border trade issues with India,” Gao Hucheng said, adding that huge business deals were in offing between the two countries.

He also hoped that the bi-lateral cooperation on several issues during the Doha round of trade talks would be strengthened. “Trade agreements will strenghten our position at the WTO,” said Gao, referring to the Doha round of WTO as a big failure.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) - the umbrella organisation of all export outfits in the country - will set up an India Pavilion at the 104th China Import and Export Fair (CANTON) Oct 15-19 at Guangzhou, China, an FIEO statement said.