Such commitments from India came during the meeting between Commerce secretaries of Nepal and India held on Wednesday. [break]
“India will open the presently stalled exports, but denial to remove countervailing duty will continue to eat away competitiveness of Nepali readymade garment,” Prashant Pokharel, president of Garment Association of Nepal, told myrepublica.com.
India had been imposing 4 percent additional customs duty to key Nepali exportable items since about a couple of years ago. This had seriously hit exports and contributed in widening trade deficit with India.
During the meeting, Nepal had argued that the imposition of countervailing duty and other extra-customs duty imposed on major Nepali exports had caused the country´s exports to decline to Rs 12 billion in the first four months of 2009/10 from Rs 15 billion in the same period last year.
"We expect the Indian government to issue notification on revocation of additional customs duty soon,” said Commerce Secretary Purushottam Ojha, at the end of the meeting.
The meeting agreed to instantly open up Nepal´s third country trade via Vishakhapatam, the newly opened port. To start with, the port has been opened for exports being done through Biratnagar, Birgunj, Birgunj inland container depot, Bhairahawa and Nepalgunj customs, said Ojha.
The commerce secretaries also decided to form a taskforce to deal with problems that the Nepali traders are facing while exporting agro-commodities.
During the meeting, Nepal had asked India to step up process of lab upgradation and standard accreditation -- something which is crucial for freeing Nepali exports from tedious quality certification process they are facing now in India.
Presently, lengthy standard certification process has been deterring exports of perishable agro-products. If these impediments are removed, traders say the export will start growing immediately.
The two sides also agreed to ease cargo operations along the road transit of Kakarbhitta-Fulbari-Banglabandh to give boost to country´s trade with Bangladesh.
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