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KATHMANDU: The Treaty of Commerce with India has been automatically renewed. Although Nepal had been calling for renewing the treaty with amendments for a long time, ultimately, it was automatically renewed without any amendments.
Joint-Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Supplies, Ram Chandra Tiwari, said the commerce treaty with India has been automatically renewed in accordance with the provision stipulating that the treaty has to be renewed every seven years. “Although the topic of amending and revising the treaty had been raised, it could not be addressed this time. However, it can be amended in between. We are preparing for the Commerce Secretary-level meeting of the two countries, and this issue can also be raised at that time,” Joint-Secretary Tiwari said.
Stating that the Transit Treaty between Nepal and India had been amended in between, he said the Treaty of Commerce could also be amended in the coming years.
The Treaty of Commerce, which was inked in 1978, was last amended in October 2016. The treaty is renewed every seven years. It was not amended last time as well. It drew criticism from trade and commerce experts and the business community at that time also after the treaty was renewed without any amendment.
India is Nepal’s largest foreign trade partner, and the country has a huge trade deficit with India. The topic of amending the commerce treaty had been coming up for a long time to address this trade deficit problem.
Former Commerce Secretary Chandra Kumar Ghimire said that Nepal is facing various problems in the foreign trade sector as this treaty remains to be amended or revised for a long time. Ghimire said Nepal had initiated the process for amending the treaty in 2018, but it was stopped in the middle, and the treaty has been automatically renewed this time also without any amendments, which is not in Nepal’s interest. “Nepal should have opted for a new treaty, concluding the negotiations with India at the earliest. This not happening. It is not in our national interest,” the former Commerce Secretary said, adding that the talks between all bilateral mechanisms are on hold for the last one or two years.
