India has on Wednesday committed to nullify 4 percent additional customs duty that it has imposed on 217 Nepali exportable commodities.
The southern neighbour made commitment to this during the meeting between Commerce secretaries of Nepal and India held on Wednesday.
The imposition of the said duty has seriously hit key Nepali exportable items, thus resulting in widening of trade deficit with India.
During the meeting, Nepal bemoaned 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.
The meeting also agreed to immediately open up Nepal´s third country trade via Vishakhapatam, the newly opened port.
As an initial step, the port has been opened for exports being done through Biratnagar, Birgunj, Birgunj inland container depot, Bhairahawa and Nepalgunj customs, it is understood.
The Nepali side also asked for stepping up process of lab upgradation and standard accreditation.
The absence of these procedures is compelling Nepali items to undergo hassle-some quality certification process while being exported to India.
The meet also decided to form a taskforce to enable Nepali traders to tide over problems while exporting agro-commodities.
Nepal and India also agreed to ease cargo operations along the road transit of Kakarbhitta-Fulbari-Banglabandh to bolster the country´s trade with Bangladesh.
Source : nepalnews.com