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India's local exports off 80pc as China clamps down on border trade

THE export of sugar, the backbone of India's border trade with China, has fallen 80 per cent at Taklakot Mandi in China's Tibetan region where traders from Uttarakhand sell their wares.

Sources say the Chinese authorities have become stringent on border trade with India, reports the Times of India.

According to traders who have been involved in the export of these commodities for decades, Chinese officials have of late not been encouraging them to bring their goods into the region and have been imposing restrictions.

"We were surprised when we were told by Chinese authorities that the commodities are being brought in unhygienic conditions even though we have been bringing these items for sale for so many years," said a trader.

Former chairman of the Indo-China Trade Union, Padam Singh Raypa, said the Chinese attitude is "puzzling". "I have been involved in the cross-border trade since 1992 when restrictions on trade between India and China were lifted, 30 years after the Sino-Indian war of 1962.

"The commodities were an integral part of the border trade commodity list which was agreed upon by both the countries. If proper packaging is an issue, they could have asked us and we would have taken them in packaged form, but they simply asked us not to bring these commodities for trade," he said.

Sources said that Chinese officials had also curtailed the issuance of permits to Chinese traders for going to the Taklakot Mandi, further impacting the cross-border trade which takes place between June and October each year when traders make the journey across the 17,000-feet-high Lipulekh pass to Purang. As a result, the number of Indian traders, too, have fallen.

According to Santosh Pandey, sub-divisional magistrate, Pithoragarh, who is also the nodal officer, Indo-China trade office, this year only 71 traders have been given passes along with 94 helpers. "The numbers have dipped significantly. Just two to three years ago, almost 250-300 traders were going across the border," he said.