One arrested with Yarchagompu at Serathang near Nathu La

source;SikkimNow
GANGTOK, 26 July: One person was detained today in possession of 1.2 kg of Yarchagompu [caterpillar grass] by Customs officials at Serathang, official trade mart for the Nathula border trade on the Indian side. The origins of the consignment and what the accused planned to do with it is not yet clear. Yarchagompu, an insect parasite fungus having high commercial demand as a health tonic and aphrodisiac, is found in altitudes above 11,500 feet. Its trade is bound by several laws in India and traffic not allowed.

The Legal counsel of the Forest Department, Jagat Rai, confirming the arrest, informed that the accused has been booked under Section 27, 29, 35[6], 51, 52 of Wildlife Act and 42[3]/83/84 of Sikkim Forest Act by the Gangtok Range Office.
The incident was also confirmed by the Divisional Forest Officer [Wildlife-East] Ravi Kumar.
The RO, Dhananjay Pradhan, informs that the accused, detained by the Customs officials at Serethang was subsequently released. By then, the Forest Department had been informed and following coordination with Sikkim Police, the accused was arrested at 3rd Mile check-post while he was returning.
“We are awaiting official details from the Custom Officials which will be handed over to us tomorrow,” Mr. Pradhan said.
In the meanwhile, the accused has be brought down to Gangtok and will be kept in custody at the Sadar Thana.

More Chinese traders come in NathulaUpdated on Thursday, May 06, 2010, 15:26 IST

Gangtok: The trade between India and China has started on Thursday with more Chinese traders coming to the trade marts of Sikkim that their Indian counterparts, customs officials said.

"A total of 49 traders from Tibet came to the trade mart at Serathang in 11 vehicles and 11 Indian traders crossed over to Renquinngang in China in 5 vehicles. Though the fifth season officially opened on May 3, the trade took off today for bad weather," SP Customs PT Bhutia told a news agency.



He said Chinese traders were not allowed to bring imports as they brought goods which do not figure in the list of items to be traded through Nathula between the two countries.

"They had to leave the items behind and come to Sikkim to buy Indian goods. They were handed over the unlisted items during their journey back home," Bhutia said.

The trade will continue till the end of November when the pass at 14,420 ft closes for winter.

Under the bilateral agreement between India and China, there are 29 exportable items which Sikkim traders can export to Tibet and can import 15 items, officials said.

On the other hand, exports from India reached Rs 2.54 lakh today, officials said.

Customs officials said the trading this season would be low due to the bad condition of road to Nathula.

PTI

Custom officials hit by boulders, no border trade takes place

NIRMAL MANGAR

GANGTOK, May 3: The fifth edition of Nathu La border trade between Indian State of Sikkim and Tibet Autonomous Region of China underwent from today but business could not take place as two Indian Customs officials were injured when a loose boulder crashed into their vehicle at 13th Mile near Kyongsla along the Jawaharlal Nehru Marg.

Havaldar AK Dey sustained leg injuries while inspector Prashant Rasaily sustained injuries in his face. However the injuries were not major.

The custom officials were heading towards the Nathu La border to supervise the border trade when their vehicles were hit by boulders slipping from the road above at 13th mile where road widening works are being done by Border Roads Organization.
“We decided to take the injured officials to Gangtok for treatment as a result, we did not proceeded towards the border for the trade”, said Customs superintendent PT Bhutia to reporters.

The vehicle has also been damaged and the Customs officials have decided to approach their superiors for an alternative arrangement. The officials said that they will be positioned for their duties from tomorrow as usual.

The unfortunate incident meant no business could take as no traders from both sides could cross the border due to non-clearance of Customs procedure.

Several Chinese traders had reached the gate at the international gate at 9 am in the morning returned back to TAR. The traders from Sikkim who were seeking to reach Renquingang trade mart in the TAR side also returned back from the gate.

“We have come with new aspirations and hopes to participate in the border trade”, said Pema Ledya Sandgerpa to reporters.

Officials from State Commerce & Industries department-director Kamal Kafley, deputy secretary Sumita Pradhan, joint secretary NT Bhutia-had represented the State government on the inaugural day.

According to the East District Admistration, around 160 traders had applied for trade licenses to participate in the trade out of which 52 were issued.

“The verification process is going on for the remaining applications and we will issue the same once it gets through the verification process”, District Collector (East) D Anandan.

NATHU LA TRADE WILL BECOME FULL FLEDGED INTERNATIONAL TRADE FROM NEXT YEAR- SIKKIM CHAMBER HOPEFUL

Nathu La border trade to begin on May 3

by Sarikah Atreya
SOURCE;HINDUBUSINESSLINE

Gangtok, April 19

The fifth season of the Nathu La border trade between Sikkim and Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) is scheduled to commence on May 3. It will go on till November 30.

An official release said that the trade beginning from May 3 will remain open four days a week - Monday to Thursday - from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm Indian Standard Time.

The release further said that there has been no change in the trade items and the present list remains same, i.e., 29 exportable items from India to TAR and 15 items from TAR to India through the Nathu La border trade.

According to the press release, the traders from Sikkim exported items worth Rs 1.35 crore while the TAR traders could export items worth Rs 2.96 lakh only during the last season.

Since the term border trade is to be construed that the trade is opened for the people of the border area only for the items produced in local area of limited value, the Centre India has fixed the currency value limit to Rs 1 lakh a day a trader from 2007-08, it is informed.

The State Commerce and Industries Department has also advised the DC (East) to issue the trade passes at the earliest to enable the traders to prepare for the border trade.

Till date, a total of 135 local traders have already applied for trade passes to the East District Administration.

Meanwhile, local traders here are hopeful of a good trading season despite non-fulfilment of the demand for revision of trade items.

“Though the list of items have remained same, the trade volume over the years have increased along with the number of traders participating in the border trade,” said local trader Mr Anil Kumar Gupta. He said that the traders are expecting export business over Rs 2 crore this season.

At the same time, traders here have reiterated their demand for the revision of the trade items so that traders from both sides could benefit.

Along with the State Government, both Sikkimese and TAR traders have been asking the Centre to include more feasible and marketable commodities.

According to the bilateral agreement, there are 29 exportable items such as tea, spices and biscuits which are allowed to be exported to TAR by the Sikkim traders while there are only 15 items like wool, goat skins and sheep skins which can be imported from TAR to India through the Nathu La border trade.

The State government and traders of Sikkim and TAR have been contending that these items especially those allowed to be imported from TAR are obsolete and have no market value.

Inclusion of local products

The State Government had been repeatedly demanded for inclusion of local products of Sikkim such as handicrafts and cash crops for the border trade.

Lok Sabha member from Sikkim, Mr P.D. Rai, has said that the Sikkim Government has been pressing ahead with the Centre for expansion of trade items for the Nathu La border trade.

He informed that he will be taking up the matter with the concerned Ministry in the Centre.

“The demand is under advanced stage of consideration and we are hoping that something positive will come out,” Mr Rai said. He also expressed his hopes that at least some amendments in the present list of items will be taken up.

However, traders here were of the view that revision of trade items could take place after the border trade infrastructure is completed in the Indian side.

Presently, the Border Road Organisation (BRO) is widening the 51 km Jawaharlal Nehru Marg connecting Gangtok with the Nathu La border. The Jawaharlal Nehru Marg double laning project had started from 2007 and is estimated to cost around Rs 780 crore.

Sikkim Chamber of Commerce (SCC) President, Mr S.K. Sarda, said that whenever the Centre is approached over the demand, the officials inform that the file is in process.

Mr Sarda said that while the SCC remains hopeful for revision of the trade items soon, traders would be benefiting more from the next season when the Nathu La border trade completes five years.

According to the bilateral agreement, the border trade is supposed to be declared as an international trade which means import and export of more items can be done after paying custom duty like in Mumbai and Kolkata ports, he said.

SIKKIM: Nathu-la trade in 5th year, items on lists same

source: THE TELEGRAPH



Gangtok, April 19: The Nathu-la border trade with the Tibet Autonomous Region of China is set to start on May 3, but with the same list of obsolete items that traders on both sides of the border have been complaining for the past four years.

The trade will continue till November 30 when the pass at 14,420ft closes down for winter.

Under the bilateral agreement between India and China, there are 29 exportable items. Sikkim traders are allowed to export them to TAR. But the Indian business community can import only 15 items some of them as obsolete as goatskin and sheepskin.

From the time trade through the pass started in 2006, the traders have been demanding that the Centre let them do business with more feasible and marketable commodities. The state government, too, had demanded the inclusion of local products like handicrafts and cash crops in the border trade.

Sikkim Chamber of Commerce president S.K. Sarda said: “Whenever we approach the Union commerce and industries ministry regarding the revision of trade items, the officials tell us that the file is being processed.”

However, local trader Anil Kumar Gupta is optimistic that it will be a good season this time in terms of volume and participating traders. Both have increased, he said.

The export figure for the last season was Rs 135 lakh while import stood at Rs 2.96 lakh. “We are expecting the export figure to cross Rs 2 crore this time,” said Gupta.

A section of traders expects the list to be revised after the border infrastructure is completed on the Indian side.

Currently, the Border Roads Organisation is widening the 51-km-long Jawaharlal Nehru Marg that connects Gangtok with Nathu-la. The double-laning of the road started in 2007 and is estimated to cost around Rs 780 crore.

Sarda said traders will benefit more from the next season when the Nathu-la trade completes five years. According to the bilateral agreement, he claimed, the border trade is supposed to be declared “international” then, which would mean more import and export.

A state government press release said trade would be allowed from Monday to Thursday from 730am till 3.30pm.

Since “border trade” can be done only with items produced near the border, the Centre has fixed a limited currency of Rs 1 lakh per day for each trader.

This year, till today, 135 traders have applied for trade passes with the East District collector. Every year, the traders have to apply afresh.

Chinese traders get site at Sherathang trade mart

Gangtok, October 12: A complex for Chinese traders in the Sherathang Trade Mart premises was opened from today, 3 years after the Nathu La border trade between Sikkim and Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) resumed in June, 2006.The complex for Chinese traders at the Sherathang mart has rooms for 12 shops and was opened for the Chinese traders from today after the infrastructure was finally completed, sources informed.

Sources informed that the Chinese traders were very happy to do business and conduct trade under a permanent roof as they have been so far running at road side in the mart at the mercy of adverse weather conditions.The site for the Chinese traders was scheduled to be completed and opened during the starting of the border trade this year but was set back due to heavy snowfall during last winter.

The third season of the Nathu La border trade between Sikkim and TAR had commenced from May 4 for this year and will conclude on 30th Nov 2009.

OVERLAND CABLE LINK THRU NATHU LA ESTABLISHED

First overland cable link ushers new era for India and China telecom

by Ek Heng, Asia-Pacific Correspondent

Mon. August 31, 2009

The first terrestrial high-bandwidth link commissioned between India and China marks a high point for two of the world’s largest telecom markets. India’s Reliance Communications collaborated with China Telecom for this overland 300 km cross-border cable link with a design capacity of 4.8 Tbit/s.

The China-India Cable System passes through the north eastern India city of Siliguri and Yadong in Tibet using the Nathula pass. It complements the submarine connections between two fastest growing economies and offers alternative cable route in the event of disruptions to the existing subsea network grid that are susceptible to natural disasters.

CABLE LINK THRU NATHU LA BETWEEN INDIA AND CHINA LAUNCHED

SIKKIM: Direct terrestrial cable link through Nathu-La announced, Chamber of Commerce terms it landmark success



GANGTOK, August 28: Terming it a landmark success, the Sikkim Chamber of Commerce has congratulated Reliance Communications and China Telecom for having announced the opening of the first direct terrestrial cable link between the Chinese and Indian domestic markets through Nathu-La.

The cable passes through the inhospitable terrain of the Nathu-La Pass, linking Yadong in China to Siliguri in India. The cable will provide direct, enterprise class connectivity between all major Indian and Chinese locations as well as expanding high-bandwidth coverage to more rural regions and cities in both countries.

A press release issued by SK Sarda, president, Sikkim Chamber of Commerce adds that Reliance Globalcom, the global arm of Reliance Communications can now offer the additional protection of two separate cable routes between India and China with considerable less risk from natural disasters.

“Both international businesses and consumers in the region will benefit from improved internet connectivity, lower latency and improved voice clarity calls.”
Mr. Sarda said in the release adding “India and China represent the largest growing economies in the world, and the current global economic environment requires dedicated and weather proof high-bandwidth between the markets of the two countries.”

He further said that the initiative was another milestone in improving the relationship between the two Asian Giants.

CHINA MAY ATTACK INDIA BEFORE 2012- INDIAN DEFENCE REVIEW

New Delhi 12 July 2009

The Communists are losing their grip over China. The Chinese government is facing unprecedented internal dissent, growing unemployment and financial problems.

And to divert people's mind from these problems, China will launch an attack on India by 2012.

This assessment has been made by Bharat Verma- Defence analyst and editor of the Indian Defence Review.

Verma explains that such an attack will serve multiple objectives. He said, "China will launch an attack on India before 2012."

There are multiple reasons for a desperate Beijing to teach India the final lesson, thereby ensuring Chinese supremacy in Asia in this century.

Also, establishing their supremacy in the region has become crucial for China because of "The growing irrelevance of Pakistan, China's right hand that operates against India on their behest"

Verma goes on to say that, "Above all, China is worried over the growing alliance of India with the US and the West, because the alliance has the potential to create a technologically superior counterpoise. All these concerns of Chinese Communists are best addressed by waging a war against pacifist India to achieve multiple strategic objectives."

(source:India Today website)

INDIA MIGHT MET WITH CHINESE THREATS

NORTH EAST: Indian might met with Chinese threats

FROM ASIA NEWS ONLINE

By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE – A series of steps taken by India in recent months to build up its defenses along its disputed frontier with China has prompted an angry response from the latter.

In June, General J J Singh, governor of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and former chief of army staff, announced that India would be deploying two army divisions of around 25,000 to 30,000 soldiers each along its boundary with China in Arunachal. A few days later, four Sukhoi Su-30MIK combat aircraft landed at the Indian Air Force (IAF) base in Tezpur. The IAF announced plans to increase this to a squadron strength of 18 aircraft.

The recent moves along the Sino-Indian Line of Actual Control at Arunachal “have no aggressive intent” but are simply aimed at “putting in place credible active deterrence against a vastly better-armed giant neighbor”, a Defense Ministry official told Asia Times Online. It was intended to meet “future security challenges” posed by China, Singh said.

Although relations between India and China have improved in recent years – China is now India’s largest trading partner – the dispute over their 4,057-kilometer-long boundary remains unresolved. In 1962, the two countries fought a short border war, which India lost.

In that war, China occupied 38,000 square kilometers of territory in Aksai Chin in the northeastern corner of Jammu and Kashmir. This territory remains under its control. Besides, Beijing is also holding 5,180 square kilometers of land in Kashmir ceded to it by Pakistan in 1963.
In the 1962 war, Chinese troops also advanced into territory in India’s northeast but retreated subsequently. Beijing continues to lay claim to around 90,000 square kilometers of territory here, roughly approximating Arunachal Pradesh or what it refers to as “Southern Tibet”.

China has repeatedly indicated that the boundary along Arunachal is not a closed chapter and that Arunachal is disputed territory. Any Indian move to assert control over Arunachal has raised hackles in China. When India conferred statehood on Arunachal in 1986, for instance, a serious skirmish broke out at Sumdurong Chu.

The response from China to the recent augmentation of forces at Arunachal was swift. An editorial in Global Times, a tabloid of the People’s Daily group, a mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China, said that India seemed to believe that China would “defer to it on territorial disputes”. Dismissing this as “wishful thinking”, it stressed that “China won’t make any compromises in its border disputes with India”.
The editorial went on to warn that India’s “dispatch of 60,000 troops” to its border with China would lead to “a rivalry between the two countries” and asked the Indian government to consider “whether or not it can afford the consequences of a potential confrontation with China”.

That threat was followed up with a reminder that India could not match China’s might. “China is seen in India as both a potential threat and a competitor to surpass. But India can’t actually compete with China in a number of areas, like international influence, overall national power and economic scale. India apparently has not yet realized this.”

Indian military experts have argued that Arunachal’s importance to China lies in its geography. Control over Arunachal will enable the Chinese to militarily overrun the Brahmaputra Valley and the rest of northeastern India.

Others have claimed that China seeks control over Arunachal, and specifically Tawang, to consolidate its hold over Tibet. Tawang is the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama and the monastery there is Tibetan Buddhism’s second largest after the Potola Palace in Lhasa. The Tawang Monastery is “a virtual treasure trove of Tibetan Buddhist religion and culture” and is seen by Tibetans as the repository of perhaps the last remnants of a Tibet submerged by Han Chinese culture.

Chinese scholars have argued that control over Tawang is essential for China “to win the hearts of the Tibetans”.

China’s assertion of its claims over Arunachal has grown in recent years. Indian diplomats say that the Chinese are intransigent on Tawang. In November 2006, Beijing’s ambassador to India, Sun Yuxi told an Indian television station “the whole of the state of Arunachal Pradesh is Chinese territory”. A few months later, China refused to issue an Indian civil servant from Arunachal a visa on the grounds that he was from Chinese territory and hence didn’t require a visa. Visits by Indian political leaders to Arunachal have ruffled feathers in Beijing.

Recently, China sought to block an Indian application for a US$2.9 billion loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which included funding for a $60 million water management project in Arunachal. China’s objection to the loan was that it was for projects in “disputed territory”. When the ADB subsequently approved the loan to India, the Chinese foreign office expressed its “strong dissatisfaction to the move”.

Indian officials say that there has been a four-fold increase in Chinese intrusions into Indian territory over the past year, most of them along the border in Arunachal.

A year ago, India acted to improve its defenses in the western sector of the Sino-Indian border. It reopened airfields in Daulat Beg Oldi and Fukche in Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, a stone’s throw from Aksai Chin. Phunchok Stobdan, senior fellow at the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, had described the reopening of the airfields near Aksai Chin as a response to the “dozens of provocations from China”. India “is preparing for contingency”, he told Asia Times Online.

The enhanced military deployment in the eastern sector is part of that preparation.

Besides the deployment of more troops and combat aircraft near at the border in Arunachal, India is developing the IAF base at Tezpur, which is just 150 kilometers from the border, into a major hub for Sukhoi aircraft. The IAF also proposes to station more Sukhois in the nearby Chabua air force base. And plans are afoot to upgrade infrastructure at five air force bases in the eastern part of the country including Tezpur, Chabua and Jorhat in Assam, Panagarh in West Bengal and Purnea in Bihar.

China’s plans to extend the Golmud-Lhasa rail up to Yatung, a trading center near Nathu La, a mountain pass that connects Tibet with Sikkim, and to Nyingchi, a trading town north of Arunachal at the tri-junction with Myanmar. Indian analysts warn that in a few years China will be able to deploy troops by the trainload right up to the Indian border at Sikkim and Arunachal – two Indian states into which Chinese intrusions are frequent.

India’s road and rail building activity in these areas has been sluggish.

Consider this. Sikkim has only one road linking its capital Gangtok to Nathu La and one landslide-prone road, just five meters wide, joining the state with the rest of India. Sikkim’s road density is 28.45 kilometers per 100 square kilometers against the national average of 84 kilometers. Arunachal Pradesh is even worse off, with a road density of just 18.65 kilometers per 100 square kilometers. No trains run to the border-states of Sikkim, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. While Chinese military personnel can drive down to the Sino-Indian border and will be able to take trains too in a few years, Indian soldiers often trek 10-15kms to get there.

This paucity of roads in border areas is being addressed now. In 2006, the government gave the green signal for a host of road and other infrastructure projects in border areas. It recently announced an investment of US$3 billion in road construction in border areas.

According to reports, upgrading advance landing grounds and airfields and construction of border roads, which was hitherto undertaken solely by engineers attached to the IAF or the Border Roads Organization, a unit of the armed forces, is now being opened up to the private sector as well. The aim is to speed up implementation of various infrastructure projects along a sensitive border.

For decades, India, badly bruised from its defeat at the hands of China, opted to back down in the face of Chinese intimidation. That is now changing. It is this newly assertive Indian posture that is bothering China.

Indian analysts believe that neither of the two countries wants to go to war. But they are not ruling out the possibility of China carrying out a limited military operation in the eastern sector of Arunachal, one that will deal a short and stunning blow, depriving Beijing of Tawang and leaving it with a bloody nose.

It is to be prepared now that India is building its military muscle in Arunachal.

ABOUT SIKKIM CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Sikkim Chamber of Commerce

Sikkim Chamber of Commerce is the rallying point for free enterprises in Sikkim. It is empowering Sikkim businesses in the changing times.

It was founded by some 200 founder members in the year 1962. Besides, all the trade associations and local chambers of businesses nominate two representatives each to the Executive body. Currently it is represented by trade associations in textile, chemist, hardware, electrical, motor parts and other businesses in Sikkim.

It is continuously taking up issues on up gradation and improvement of Indo-China border trade at Nathu la with various national and local agencies.

SCC shares the vision and speaks for Sikkim businesses directly and indirectly for over 3500 business units. It has membership of enterprises drawn from medium, small and tiny segments of manufacturing, trade and services. SCC maintains the lead as the proactive business solution provider through interactions at the highest political and commercial level within the State and at Centre.

Set up in 1962, on the advice of then Chogyal (King) of Sikkim, SCC is the oldest business organization of Sikkim businesses. It is registered with the Government of Sikkim.

In the knowledge-driven globalize economy, SCC stands for quality, competitiveness, transparency, accountability and business-government-civil society partnership to spread ethics-based business practices and to enhance the quality of life of the common people

SCC has always stood behind the nation in the hour of crisis. It has liberally aided in the recent Bihar Floods and also in Kargil War. It is committed to free enterprise and competition which is the key to enhance the quality of life of the people and to build a new, dynamic and vibrant Sikkim.

SCC acts as a bridge between the business enterprise however small or big and the Government for meaningful business and revenue in the State and is often consulted by the State Government on all developmental issues like ecology, urban development, infrastructure and planning.

Contact:

Shri S.K.Sarda, President
Shri Suresh Agarwal General Secretary
SIKKIM CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Mahatma Gandhi Road
Gangtok, Sikkim 737101
E-mail: sikkimchamberofcommerce@yahoo.com

GOVERNOR URGED TO SAVE NATHU LA TRADE

Sikkim govt. urges Governor to save Nathu La trade
Gangtok (PTI):6 June 2009

With the much-hyped Sino-India border trade at Nathu La recording no transaction last month, Sikkim government has urged Governor B P Singh to convince the Centre to review the goods on the trade list urgently to save the bilateral trade from becoming a non-event, official sources said on Sunday.

"We have requested the Governor to take up with the comnmerce ministry the review of the goods on the trade list during his proposed visit to New Delhi in order to revive the traders' interests in the border trade", an official of the state commerce and industries department told PTI here.

A delegation of the commerce and industries department led by its director Ujjwal Gurung will visit the national capital soon to take up the matter with the Centre, he said.

At the local level, the state government held a meeting with the army and custom officials two days ago to dwell on the measures to boost border trade by way of the review of the goods list and improvement in the infrastructure between Gangtok and Nathu La, the official said.

The historic Nathu La trade hit its lowest point in May last, the first month of the resumption of trade this season, with no no transaction being recorded nor traders from either side visiting the marts for business purposes apparently to protest against the failure of the two governments to review the list of goods.

The officer said the key to resurrect the border trade lay strictly with the Centre which alone could decide the direction of the Sino-India border trade at Nathu La, he said.

Officials here concede that the traders have a point as the goods on the trade list were not not financially viable considering the costs incurred by them in import of goods.

"The state government has raised this point with the Centre for review of the goods list time and again, but to no avail as the latter appears to be not so keen to take the border trade to the next level for making it a full-fledged trade between the two countries from Nathu La frontier in view of security implications", they said.

The traders, on their part, have been adamant that they will not not take part in the border trade in spite of pressure from the state government agencies as the Nathu La trade was simply not not a judicious business proposition, a representaive of Indo-Chinese Traders Association of Sikkim (ICTAS) said.

Apart from the review of the goods list, the Centre should also consider lifting the restriction on the marketing of the imported goods ouside Sikkim to enable the traders to make some profits as the local market was already choked with Chinese goods, he said.

Nathu La border trade was re-opened by the two countries in 2004 after a gap of about 40 years with India setting up a trade mart at Sherathang and China at Renguingang in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

Under the bilateral agreement, India had approved 29 items on the trade list, while the number of items approved by China stood at 15.

In the first two years, the traders had shown tremendous enthusiasm in the bilateral trade which grew substantially at Rs 9.6 million last year, but at the same time the demand for review of goods on the trade list grew louder resulting in no transaction of goods at the border trade last month.