Even after opening the Indo-China border of Nathu La (Pass), later than the scheduled date of May 1, the Indian traders kept themselves away from business owing to fewer commodities in the trading list. Many traders from China’s autonomous region of Tibet who visited the border Indian state of Sikkim with an intention of doing business were disappointed by the traders’ stance. Close to hundred traders had to return home empty-handed on account of this decision.
The trading season was agreed upon by the two countries as May 1 to November 30 earlier, and was launched with great fanfare in July 2006. But the namesake list of items to be traded across the borders has been the bone of contention since then. The bilateral trade through Nathu La, 52 km from the Sikkim capital of Gangtok is the first direct trade between both countries since their war of 1962.
The heavy snowfall in the region has delayed this year’s trading season by 18 days. According to Ujwal Gurung, Director of Industry and Commerce of Sikkim, the delay was made as per China’s request. The season has started with a fresh China’s unfriendly territorial claim of a strip of land near Sikkim’s Gyangyong village. Traders and officials are furious about the Chinese stand because the purpose of opening up the borders for trade has not produced any desired results so far and yet this claim.
Sikkim Chamber of Commerce believes the deal has not done anything to their economy which was originally expected to generate $2 billion in two-way trade by 2012. In the first trading season, the two-way trade was to the tune of a meager $47,000 and this grew in the following season by just adding another $3000 to it. Although China dropped its territorial claim of Sikkim in 2003, the latest claim will hamper the progress of the deal. Traders expect the Indian parliamentary members would initiate steps, in their forthcoming visit to Sikkim, to include more items to the import-export trade.