Production of Nepalese cooper products which used to be exported to India has almost stopped following the start of distributing quotas in accordance with the trade treaty signed between Nepal and India.

About 25,000 metric tons of copper products was exported to India last year and the figure of the products exported to india through birgunj transit point alone stood at 13,000 metric tons.

The export dropped by four-fold this year following the trade treaty reached signed between the two countries on March 5, Umesh Chandra Thakur, coordinator of Nepal employment committee said.

About half of the copper industries that are in existence in Nepal have closed down and about 2000 labourers have lost their jobs because of a drastic drop in its export, he elaborated.

Some 12 copper industries had been exporting their products abroad. The number of such industries throughout the country is 46.

A number of cooper industries have been on the verge of collapse due to the failure on the part of the government in distributing the quota in a systematic manner, board member of narayani metal industries ashok baidya said.

Discussions will be held on the procedures for quota distribution in the next meeting.

Industries producing copper goods, ghee, zinc oxide and acrylic yarn have greatly suffered after the government of India imposed an import restriction on these products citing a surge in the Indian market.

Such industries were enjoying quota and tax free facilities under the Nepal-India trade treaty signed in 1996.

All the copper industries have fully met five percent export quota of the total annual copper production in previous year as the department of the commerce has not provided specific quotas for such industries.