Nepal’s transit deal with China makes no progress even after five years

KP Sharma Oli administration, in May 2016, had signed a Transit and Transportation Agreement with China. Oli had even received praise for turning north to break Nepal's near-complete dependency on the southern neighbour for third-country trade, reports ANI.

Over the years, Nepal has been heavily dependent on its neighbours, particularly India, for essential goods and the use of ports for trade with other countries.

The finalisation of the transit protocol was expected to also allow Kathmandu to access Chinese sea and land ports, reports ANI.

It’s more than five years since the agreement was signed and over two years since the protocol was signed, but Nepal and China have yet to develop even the standard operating procedure (SOP) on implementing the transit agreement, reports The Kathmandu Post.

Experts and former officials, who were part of negotiations to complete the agreement, told the newspaper the government failed to accord the required priority to implement the agreement.

“Nepal has yet to receive a single consignment from any third country via China under the agreement that the government signed five years ago,”  Purushottam Ojha, a former commerce and industry secretary, told The Kathmandu Post. “It looks like the government wanted to show India that Nepal also has a transit agreement with China.”