Fourth edition of Nathu La trade concludes, export turn over set to cross Rs. 10 million

Himalayan Report

Gangtok, November 30: The fourth edition of the annual border trade at Nathu La, located at 14,200 feet altitude on the Sino-India frontier in Sikkim today concluded with the Indian traders registering a turn over of Rs. 8.95 million till October this year with the data of this month yet to be computed by the authorities.
The import of goods from Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), however, stood at nil as per the official figure as against Rs. 1.35 lakh last year, according to the Industries and Commerce department officials.

The Indian traders had initially evinced a lack of enthusiasm to participate in the fourth edition of the annual border trade at Nathu La which had led to no no transaction of goods from either side of the Sino-India border in May and June this year with the traders of the two countries demanding revision of the list of goods for trade from their respective government, the officials said.

The authorities later successfully persuaded the Indian traders, all of them from Sikkim, to engage in border trade that resulted the export turn over of Rs. 8.95 million in the next four months as compared to Rs. 9.6 million last year, they said.
The export of the goods from India was substantial in the month of November this year the data of which were in the process of computation, the Industries and Commerce department officials said, adding the items like textiles, utensils, canned food, tea and vegetable oil was in great demand from importers from TAR.

While acknowledging the growth in the annual trade from the Indian side, the officials said that the import of goods from TAR failed to enthuse the Indian traders who did not not pick up a single item on the import list from across the border this year as against the corresponding figure of Rs. 1.35 lakh last year.

It may be mentioned that the historical Nathu La silk route was re-opened for bilateral border trade in 2006 by the governments of India and China in a reflection of thaw in the bilateral relations.