Nathu La traders pay suspicion between India and China

New Delhi, November 1, 2006. - Trading has never been easy between India and China, as evidenced by the meager balance of the first three months after the opening of business of the passage of Nathu-La, Tibet connecting thread with the small eastern Sikkim region of India in the foothills of the Himalayas.
After a closure that lasted 45 years, the authorities opened the border on July 6 for a period of three months before the winter seasonal closure, after tough negotiations, with high expectations and very questionable result.
The flow of investments has been tiny at that time: according to the Government of Sikkim, India has exported goods to China for 15,000 euros, while the value of imports amounted to 19,000.
Very little if one takes into account the forecasts of 36 million euros for 2007 made ​​by the Study Group on Trade Nathu-La before the publication of the terms of the opening.
And a negligible amount to two countries exchanged goods and services worth 14.713 million euros in 2005, 37.5 percent more than last year, mostly by sea.
In Nathu-La, shortly after the opening of the passage in the mountains, the vice chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Hao Peng, and told reporters that India had applied too many conditions to the exchange of products.
"I hope the Indian authorities take a more egalitarian with respect to trade with China, rather than impose such restrictions," he said.
But in India, things are otherwise, as he told EFE Minister of Commerce and Industry in the region of Sikkim, RB Subba, for whom the opening of Nathu-La is the result of a "border agreement, not free trade. "
"We can export and import products 29 15, and perhaps this is a cause for the amount of trade is so low. But we have sent a request to the Government of India to expand the list, "he said.
The reality is that local merchants are discouraged by the difficulties of trading across the border, with a preset list of permitted and limited to only stay one day.
The result of both obstacle is that, as he told the Indian press secretary of the Merchants' Association of Sikkim, Anil Kumar Gupta, a trader has to get up "every day at three o'clock to sell in China and return the same day ".
And in three months, only 696 Indians and 1,253 small Chinese vendors have guts to get up so early and go out and sell agricultural products, such as those derived from yak, vegetables or fruits, and simple manufactures.
The merchants also face a peculiar condition, which limits individual transactions to a maximum of 435 euros a day, which, according to Gupta, "prevents large-scale development activities."
Subba Minister shares the criticism: "The Government of Sikkim supports free trade across borders, because it is the only way to grow trade between China and India, so I look forward to a review of the agreement."
Until then, the minister prefers to take things on the positive side, and, as recognized by EFE, considers that the agreement is the first "peace symbol and a sign of friendship between two giants."
Because, with its limitations, open the passage was the result of three years of negotiations between two countries that have serious differences in the pattern of their border, both in Sikkim and in Kashmir, to the point of having waged a war.
So for Subba, the small and limited trade flows in Nathu-La is a hopeful sign of mutual acceptance between the two most populous countries.

Share

Thematic area:

1. India and Pakistan open historic trade routes in Kashmir
2. Clos announces "an offensive on all fronts" to enter Indian market
3. The political conflict is gripping the economy of Kashmir
4. The most awaited Indian movie madness unleashed in the audience
5. Met, between devotion and resentment, 25 years after the assassination of Indira Gandhi