Kathmandu, October 6

Nepal and China are gearing up to hold discussions to develop protocol of the Transit and Transport Agreement with China. In this regard, the Ministry of Transport China has proposed a meeting from October 17 to 19 in Lhasa — the capital of Tibet.

The technical committee meeting will finalise the sea port and route for export and import via China. The meeting will also define the transit operation modality, import and export procedures, modes of transport and customs clearance, among others, according to Ravi Shankar Sainju, joint secretary at the Ministry of Commerce.

The government has formed a working group to develop protocol to bring the Transit and Transport Agreement with China into implementation. Apart from Sainju, the group includes Rabindra Aryal, joint secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Dilli Ghimire, joint secretary at the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs; Bishnu Nepal, joint secretary at Ministry of Finance; and Sishir Kumar Dhungana, director general of the Department of Customs. One of the joint secretaries from the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport will be added in the team, as per Sainju.

After the Transit and Transport Agreement was signed with China in March, the government had already forwarded the framework of the protocol to the Ministry of Transport, China in August seeking its inputs.

The meeting of the technical-level committee will discuss the viable port, route, transit operation modality, customs procedures, among others and finalise the draft of the protocol. The protocol developed by the technical committee needs to be approved by the higher authority of the ministry and it would be sent to the Cabinet for approval before the protocol is signed with China.

When the Transit and Transport Agreement was signed during the visit of former prime minister KP Sharma Oli during his visit to China on March 21, it did not have any protocol, which is required to define the provisions of the pact.

The framework for the protocol, forwarded by the Ministry of Commerce to the Ministry of Transport China, has not identified any seaport and route. However, it has proposed use of multimodal transport for trade.

“The seaport, the route and transport modality will be finalised during the negotiation that is going to be held in the near future,” said Sainju, “The draft protocol has just outlined the areas of negotiation and the detailed draft will be developed during the discussion with the officials from the government of China.”

The government is preparing to conclude the protocol exchange (signing the protocol for the execution of Transit and Transport Agreement) within this year.

Till date, Nepal has been utilising transit facility provided by India for third-country trade. The country will be able to utilise transit facility of China after the protocol is signed.

In the initial stage, authorities of Nepal and China are considering the Port of Tianjin — which is close to the Chinese capital and is almost 3,500 km away from Kathmandu — as possible gateway for Nepal’s third-country trade.

However, the problem is that there is no direct rail link between Shigatse — the nearest railhead from Nepal — and Port of Tianjin. Shigatse of Tibet is the nearest railhead of China from Nepal.