India-China barter trade set to resume

After a long suspense, the annual India-China barter trade at Taklakot mart in Tibet is expected to resume this week, with the Uttarakhand government receiving a formal permission from the Centre.

“We have received an NOC from the Centre regarding the resumption of barter trade between India and China,” said Navneet Pandey, Trade Officer and SDM at Dharchula in Pithoragarh.

Last year also trade could not take place for the first time since 1992, owing to protests in Tibet in the wake of Beijing Olympics.

This year, Pandey said though the Chinese government was yet to give its permission for trade which was scheduled to begin in the first week of June, a green signal had been given by the Centre in this regard. The Trade office would start distributing passes from tomorrow, he said.

As barter trade has already been delayed, the period has been extended for one more month to end on October 31, Pandey said.

Owing to poor infrastructure facilities, traders, mainly from Bhotia community, trek 60 km distance from Pithoragarh crossing inhospitable terrain to reach Taklakot, the trade mart in Tibet where the two sides indulge in barter trade.

The volume of barter trade has been falling during the past three years.

Only Rs 1.5 crore business was being registered two years ago. Indian traders are calling for revoking a ban on the import of some trade items like Chinese raw silk and livestock, which are in good demand in India.

The demand for Chinese silk has been growing in India but the Centre thinks that its import would affect the local trade.

The import of livestock has been banned since no quarantine facility is available at Gunji, the Indian mart at Pithoragarh.

Through barter trade with their Chinese and Tibetan counterparts, Indian traders exchange goods like jaggery, wool, spices and blankets among other things.

The Indo-Tibet barter trade, which was resumed in 1992 after a gap of 30 years following the 1962 war, reached Rs 14-crore mark in the year 2004.

But after the ban of certain items like livestock and Chinese silk, the volume of trade has been falling.