India to open two more quarantine posts

Kathmandu Post Report
KATHMANDU, May 16

The Indian Government has finally decided to establish the long-awaited quarantine check posts, one each at Raxaul and Rupedia across the Nepal-India border, visiting Indian Union Minister for Agriculture Ajit Singh announced here today.

Nepal had long been urging the Indian Government to establish quarantine check posts at different places to facilitate the export of Nepali agro-products. As of now, only one quarantine check post exists at Panitanki in Kakarvitta.

The sole quarantine checkpoint at Panitanki has made it difficult for Nepali exporters, as exportable agro-products from throughout the country had to be transported through this point.

"These two proposed quarantine check points are expected to go into operation within a month," Minister Singh said at a press conference today. However, he added that it would largely depend on the technical specification submitted by the experts.

The latest assertion from Singh comes more than six months after India first agreed to establish the check posts at a number of points along the Nepal-India border to facilitate agro-product exports to India.

"As India does not recognise the certification of standard among others issued by Nepal, the Nepali exporters have to wait for days, even up to fortnight in some cases, to obtain the green signal for entering Indian market," is the common refrain expressed by those involved in the business.

This delay is known to have been going on, as Indian border customs sends the sample for testing to Calcutta, which takes days to obtain the Indian certification.

"We honour the certificate issued by the Nepali side," Singh said. "But there still need to be some technical experts to verify them." He added that the number of quarantine checkpoints could be increased, if required, on the basis of bilateral talks.

Referring to the luxury tax imposed by the West Bengal Government on the Nepali tea, Singh said, "No state government has the right to impose tax on the Nepali agro-produces’ import. The luxury tax imposed by the state government is basically to the third country’s expensive products."

It does not affect the Nepali products entering India, he said. However, his statement fails to address what is into practice across the border, according to tea exporters. "The Nepali tea is not expensive, if that is the claim," they added.

They also claimed that the imposition of the duty goes against the Nepal-India Trade Treaty.

Minister Singh, who is here to attend the FAO’s regional meet on food security, expressed concern over the Unites States’ move to increase domestic support to the agriculture sector by US $ 80 billion over the next period, as "it goes against the WTO’s Doha Declaration."

"The US’s decision has contravened the Doha Declaration which asked the developed countries to slash their domestic support in the agriculture sector to create the level playing field for the developing and least developed countries," he stated.

This will affect the developing countries that cannot provide similar support to the agriculture sector, eroding the competitiveness of their agro-produces, he stressed.

Singh said that the poor performance of the South Asia in its campaign against hunger was largely due to the lack of uniformity in action and plan. "However, we have agreed to work together on the issue on the basis of common action plan," he said.

s The meeting of the SAARC agriculture ministers held in the Capital on Wednesday has called for more bilateral and multilateral funds and grants in the South Asian region, as the share of such funds is lesser in the region, he added