Learn Chinese - Nathu La Pass on Sino-Indian border closes

CHINA / National

Nathu La Pass on Sino-Indian border closes

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-10-15 10:24

LHASA -- Nathu La Pass on Sino-Indian border, which was reopened to trade
in early July after having closed for 44 years following a conflict
between the two nations, has been shut down again, but temporarily this
time, according to an agreement between China and India.

Local sources said, quite a number of business people have chosen to stay
behind at Tibet's Yadong, where the border trade market is located, and
to seize the winter in making a good preparation for the start of the
trading season, said an official with Yadong County Government.

Latest statistics given by the Tibet Autonomous Regional Bureau of
Commerce shows that altogether 1.49 million yuan (US$186,250) worth of
imports and exports were done at the Renqinggang border trade market in
Yadong, Tibet, in the past 51 normal trading days between July 6 and
September30.

Commodities traded at the border trade market include gifts, business
tools, bedding silk, daily necessities, and zanba, a Tibetan food made of
roasted qingke barley flour, for export, and rice, flour, candy and
incense for import.

The fact that the meagre volume of border trade with the Renqinggang
market has fallen short of the expectations is largely blamed on factors
including restrictions placed on commodities for import and export on the
part of India, a lack of a unified standards for commodity inspection and
quarantine, a limited trading time as a result of the special climate in
the Himalayan region, and bad infrastructure.

Reopening of the Nathu La Pass does boost tourism in Yadong. Statistics
provided by Yadong County Government says tourists made 7,000 visits to
the county by September28 and raked in 1.67 million yuan in revenue, up
53 percent from comparable figure for 2005.

Trade through the Nathu La Pass accounted for 80 percent of total
crossborder trade between China and India in the early 1900s. But after
their border conflict in 1962, the two countries closed their customs
chekck points at the former border markets and the trade route became a
tightly guarded frontier with barbed wire.

Previously, more than 90 percent of trade between China and India were
shipped by sea instead, and via Tianjin -- a port city some 120
kilometers from Beijing but nearly 4,400 kilometers from Lhasa.

On July 6, China and India reopened border trade through the Nathu La
Pass, which sits 4,545 meters above sea level and is wedged between
Yadong County in Tibet's Xigaze Prefecture and India's Sikkim State.

With the reopening of the Nathu La Pass, it is only 1,200 kilometers by
land from Lhasa to Calcutta, a major Indian coastal city.

When China opened a trade mart at Renqinggang, some 16 kilometers from
the Nathu La Pass, India opened the Changgu mart in neighbouring Sikkim.
However, while Indian business people can stay up at China's Renqinggang
mart for the night, Chinese traders cannot spend the night at the Indian
mart.

Both sides have also agreed that the border trade season would be from
June through to September.

China does not impose any restrictions on crossborder trade except for
illegal items, and hostels have been built to accommodate Indian traders.

India, however, only authorizes the export of 29 kinds of commodities to
be exported from India to China, and 15 items to be permitted to enter
the Indian market from China.
The year 2006 has been designated the year of Sino-Indian friendship.

Information from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce shows China and India
recorded US$18.73 billion of trade last year, up 37.5 percent
year-on-year. And the figure is expected to exceed US$20 billion this
year.

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