Kathmandu, January 08 (HS): Before the Commerce Secretary level meeting to be held between Nepal-India from January 9, an agreement has been reached on Wednesday to review the trade and transport treaty between the two countries. India’s Commerce Secretary Sushil Barthwal has reached Kathmandu for this meeting. The Nepalese delegation will be led by Nepal’s Commerce Secretary Govind Bahadur Karki.
The Trade and Transport Treaty was signed between Nepal and India in 2009 itself. The then Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh and Nepal’s then Commerce Minister Rajendra Mahato signed this treaty. According to the provision of this treaty, it gets automatically renewed every seven years. It has been renewed in 2016 and 2023, but due to many inequalities in it, the demand for its review was being raised from Nepal’s side. Although India had agreed to review it in 2020 itself, but due to the Corona epidemic, only a virtual meeting could be held that year.
Nepal’s Commerce Ministry spokesperson Baburam Adhikari said that reviewing the trade and transport treaty would be a major agenda in the intergovernmental group meeting starting from Thursday. He said that homework is going on regarding which provisions of this treaty are to be changed and possibly consensus will be gathered on it by this evening. According to him, there may be a proposal from Nepal to lift the ban imposed by India on exports. Similarly, there will also be a demand for recognition of Nepal’s quality certificate from India. He said that all these agendas will be discussed in the meeting to be held from January 9.
According to the spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, there has also been an agreement to sign a new agreement to stop illegal trade between Nepal and India. Under this agreement, legal recognition will be given to stop smuggling from China to India via Nepal.
Hindusthan Samachar
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