Gangtok, September 28 – The first season of Sino-Indian border trade through Nathula in East Sikkim will come to a close this afternoon with traders from both the countries assembling at the Renquinggang Trading Mart in the Tibet Autonomous Region to participate in a function to mark the occasion.
Border trade between India and China through the pass had resumed after 44 years of closure on July 6 this year.
About 60 traders from Sikkim left this morning for the Renquinggang Trading Mart to attend the function organised by Tibetan traders in an expression of solidarity.
Though the trading season is scheduled to end on September 30, it will virtually come to a close today itself as it is a Thursday, the last day of trading in a week.
Expecting a further rise in trade volume through the pass next year, both Commerce and Industries department offcials and trade bodies here agree that the first season of trade has been “satisfactory”.
“The volume of trade through Nathula is much more than business being transacted between the two countries through Shipkila in Himachal and Lipulekh in Uttaranchal,” State Commerce and Industry Secretary C L Denzongpa told reporters.
While the final figures are still awaited, business worth Rs 11.55 lakh was transacted through the route till September 18 after its opening on July 6. Out of this, export was worth Rs 5.48 lakh whereas import figures stood at Rs 6.7 lakh, he said.
During the period about 400 traders from Sikkim went over to Requinggang to sell their goods and about 900 businessmen from the TAR visited the Indian trading mart at Sherathang for trading purposes. Expressing satisfaction over the enthusiasm displayed by traders on both the sides of the border, Denzongpa said it was quite an achievement considering the initial hitches which delayed the beginning of actual trading through the pass by about 20 days after the formal opening of the route on July 6.
Due to the insistence of customs officials at Sherathang Trade Mart on production of import export code number by the Sikkimese traders, actual trading through the route could start only after July 27 when they were exempted from this formality.
However, all this didn`t impair the enthusiasm of the traders who whole heartedly participated in trading activities through the pass after the intial bottlenecks were removed following the intervention of the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industries, he claimed.
Reacting to reports that the trade volume through the route had fallen short of expectations, he said this was being said by those who didn`t understand the difference between border and free or full-scale trade.
“Border trade is supposed to be small scale,” he said.
