Despite Doklam standoff, cross border trader resumes with China in Himachal

SHIMLA: After nearly two months of standoff between India and China over territorial dispute at Doklam, the annual cross border trade through Shipkila pass has finally got underway.

The trade usually kicks off in the last week of June and continues till the end of November. But this year, it was delayed due to the tension at Doklam.

“The first batch of traders, comprising five inhabitants of the tribal Kinnaur and Lahaul Spiti district, returned from across the border on Thursday evening,” said Sharat Chander Negi, general manager of General Industrial Corporation, Kinnaur.

So far, out of the 86 traders who applied for trade permit, only 52 have been given security clearance.

“Majority of the traders are from villages located close to the China border,” says Hishey Negi, president of the Kinnaur Indo-China Trade Association that comprises more than 100 traders. “This year, the traders too began late as they were busy plucking apricot.”

The government had banned livestock trade in 2012 due to lack of quarantine facilities. Livestock comprises a major portion of the cross-border trade. The Indian side majorly imported chigu— goats reared for wool and meat in China-controlled Tibet while horses, known for their sturdiness, is popular among Indian traders. “We have asked the state government to lift the ban on livestock trade and create more facilities at Hopsung, two kilometers ahead of Shipki village,” said Kinnaur legislator and Vidhan Sabha deputy speaker Jagat Singh Negi.

The trade through Shipki La Pass was started in 1993. It came to a halt after the Indo-China war in 1962. Ever since the trade has resumed not even a single Chinese or Tibetan trader has visited the Indian side.

Namgya village is a point fixed for trading on Indian side. Indian traders carry items such as agricultural implements, blankets, copper products, clothes, textiles, cycles, coffee, tea, barley, rice, flour, dry fruit, dry and fresh vegetables, vegetable oil, jaggery and tobacco. How the trade is conducted

Traders apply for passes at the tehsildhar’s office in Pooh. These are then scrutinised by central agencies. Once the applications are cleared, traders travel by road to Namgya, 22 kilometres from Pooh, and then to the border village of Chuppan. Once here, they head to the zero point on the international border.

A six-hour trek takes them to Shipki, a village in China-controlled Tibetan Autonomous Region.