External affairs ministry official to study progress of Nathula trade

An official of the ministry of external affairs is in Gangtok to study the progress of the Nathula border trade, official sources said today.

Under-secretary in the ministry of external affairs (MEA) China desk, Gitika Srivastav is in Gangtok to study the progress of the border trade between Indian and China through Nathula, the sources said.

Srivastav is in Sikkim to take stock of the progress of the border trade, interact with officials, traders and the administration and report back to the MEA to enable it to take decision about the future course of action.

While exports have been steadily flowing out from Sikkim into Tibet, there have been virtually no official imports.

Import figures for this fifth season stands at zero. This was also brought to the notice of the under-secretary, sources said..

Sources said Srivastav was told of the long pending demand of the traders for revision of the list of items of trade, especially the items allowed for import which were obsolete and due to which there was no import for the past two years.