The border trade through the Himalayan Nathu La Pass between
China and India has been "uninspiring" since the historic trade
route re-opened just a year ago after 44 years of closure due to
border conflicts.
China and India re-started border trade on July 6 last year
through the Nathu La Pass, which sits 4,545 meters above sea level
and is wedged between Yadong County of Tibet's Xigaze Prefecture and India's Sikkim
State.
They also opened two border trade markets - the Renqinggang
market in Yadong and Changgu mart in India's state of Sikkim, which
the two countries have agreed will be open between June and
September every year.
"But figures show that the border trade has been uninspiring
since the re-opening," said Zhang Weidong, head of the Customs of
Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, on
Friday.
China's Renqinggang market received 574 Indian traders last year
while 1,217 Chinese traders went to India's Changgu mart during the
period, according to statistics from the Commerce Bureau of Yadong
County.
The trade volume reached about 1.49 million yuan (US$196,000),
including 1.04 million yuan of exports and 450,000 yuan of imports,
statistics show.
Xinhua reporters saw only 11 motor vehicles and 56 traders from
the Chinese side going through the Pass and 12 motor vehicles and
38 traders from the Indian side going through the Pass on July 2,
which was nevertheless described as "the busiest" day by local
officials since the re-opening.
An Indian official has also acknowledged the situation is far
from ideal. The Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh was
quoted by the country's national daily, The Hindu, in May as
saying that the real issues inhibiting trade were upgrading the
trade infrastructure on the Indian side and negotiating a new
protocol with China which will enable cross-border trade.
"Both sides are still wedded to the concept of border trade
rather than trade across the border. Our infrastructure is pathetic
compared to the facilities on the Chinese side and the list of
items (traded) too is severely restricted," the minister was quoted
as saying.
A senior official in Tibet said just a month after the
re-opening of the Pass, that the trade was running at a "low level"
and was "not ideal" because "India has unilaterally imposed
restrictions on trade through Nathu La."
India authorizes the export of only 29 items from India to
China, and a mere 15 items are permitted to enter the Indian market
from China, Hao Peng, vice chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region,
told a visiting Indian media delegation.
Such trade restrictions still exist today, local officials and
traders in Yadong told Xinhua, calling for the Indian side to take
actions.
In a move to change the situation, the two sides have agreed
that the trade through the Pass this year should begin a month
earlier (May 1) than last year and will continue until November 30
compared with last year's September 28.
"The two sides hope to enlarge the trade volume by increasing
the duration of trade by three months," said Li Ping, director of
the Commerce Bureau of Yadong County.
Statistics show that 240 Indian traders came to the Renqinggang
mart and 512 Chinese traders went to the Changgu mart from May 1 to
June 28, generating a trade volume of 455,700 yuan.
On the other hand, analysts and officials in Tibet say that it
is still too early to conclude whether or not the re-opening of the
Pass has been successful just by looking at the trade volume
figures.
"The re-opening of the Pass and the trade volume achieved within
just a year are at least a good start for the two sides,
considering the trade route had once been closed down for 44
years," said Gao Shangde, deputy director of the Tibet Regional
Commerce Department.
He said that the Indian commerce authorities and the Sikkim
State are upgrading the roads leading to the border trade mart and
the infrastructure of the mart in an effort to boost the trade.
"We still need time for the growth of border trade," he
said.
Trade through Nathu La Pass accounted for 80 percent of the
total border trade volume between China and India in the early
1900s. But following their border conflict in 1962, the two
countries closed their customs at former border trade markets and
the trade route became a tightly guarded frontier with barbed
wire.
It was toward the end of the 20th century that Sino-Indian ties
saw improvement, and the two countries agreed in 2003 to reopen
border trade markets on the two sides of the Nathu La Pass.
Before the Pass was re-opened last year, 90 percent of the goods
were shipped by sea, and by way of Tianjin - a port city some 120
kilometers from Beijing but 4,400 kilometers from Lhasa. With Nathu
La Pass re-opened, it is only 1,200 kilometers by land from Lhasa
to Calcutta, a major coastal city of India.
Statistics from China's Ministry of Commerce show that the trade
volume between China and India surged to US$24.9 billion in 2006
from only US$2.1 billion in 2000, making China the second biggest
trade partner of India, and India was China's 10th largest trade
partner.
(Xinhua News Agency July 7, 2007)
