Experts urge concrete steps to cut trade deficit with India

WITH Nepal’s trade deficit with India increasing every year, businessmen and trade experts have stressed on the need for concrete actions from the both the countries to minimise the deficit. Addressing the Nepal-India Business Conclave here on Friday, Commerce Secretary Janardan Nepal said the government has been making every possible effort to arrest the growing trade deficit with India. The conclave is a monthly talk programme jointly organised by the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu and the Nepal-India Chambers of Commerce and Industry (NICCI) to identify, discuss and resolve Nepal-India trade-related problems. Jaideep Mazumdar, deputy chief of mission at the Indian Embassy, said Nepal would not be able to minimise the deficit unless it harnessed the maximum identified hydropower potential. Stating India is ready to sign power trade agreement (PTA) with Nepal, he said: “India will sign the PTA once Nepal ensures the energy can be exported to India.” Former Commerce Secretary Purushottam Ojha said the reason why Nepal has been incurring a huge trade deficit with India is the countries haven’t adopted international models and stands in their bilateral agreements. “Although several changes have taken place in the sector of trade and transit globally in the last 35 years, no such changes have been adopted by Nepal and India in their bilateral agreements,” he said, requesting the Indian government to let Nepal use Visakhapatnam Port which would help Nepal get more flexibility in its transit preferences. NICCI President Sashi Raj Pandey said Nepali products should be competitive so as to secure place in the Indian market. He said unless the Nepal government comes up with programmes to curb the growing trade deficit, the results would be more terrible than one can imagine. He said despite the two countries signing a number of trade-related agreements, there are some hitches in fair implementation of those agreements which resulted in Nepal’s growing trade deficit. Arun Chaudhary, immediate past president of NICCI, said due to higher production costs, Nepal’s products are losing their influence in the Indian market. He recommended instead of promoting all local products, the Nepal government should concentrate on the promotion of the hydropower sector and export the energy to India. The countries haven’t adopted international models in their bilateral agreements as per the changed context