"The Indian side at the very beginning of the talks raised the issue of labor unrest in Indian multinationals -- United Telecom Ltd (UTL), Dabur Nepal and Manipal Medical College -- in Nepal and urged us to sign bilateral investment protection agreement," a highly placed source at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS) told Republica.[break]
That is not all. The Indian side approached the talks in an aggressive manner and even asked Nepal to provide ´favorable entry´ facility to Indian goods just as India has been providing to Nepali products, something which did not match with the spirit of bilateral trade treaty.
"They (Indian officials) also demanded Nepal to scrap Agriculture Reform Tax being levied on the import of agriculture goods," said the source.
As India volleyed its issues one after another, Nepali side could not divulge into its export promotion and trade facilitation agendas during the two-day inter-governmental sub-committee (IGSC) meeting in New Delhi.
Nepal had floated 13-point agendas during the talks. Under this, it was planning to request India to provide liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage facility at the port so that Nepal could import LPG from third countries.
It was also aiming to seek India end the system of moving containers in convoy on the Kakarbhitta- Fulbari route to ease Nepal-Bangladesh trade, take steps for full operationalization of bilateral trade treaty, early start of Vishakhapatnam port for Nepal´s third country trade and opening of the Rohanpur-Singhabad rail route for Nepal-Bangladesh trade.
"However, Indian side refused to discuss on our agenda. It consistently pressed us to address their concerns first," said the source.
India has been demanding Nepal to sign Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement (BIPA) for more than a decade. However, concrete understanding on the proposed agreement have not yet been reached, as India has been pushing for stringent clause on expropriation, seeking the government to compensate the companies for loss resulting from different unrest and unknown damages as well.
"India´s intention has been to place as much liability as possible on Nepal, whereas ours effort has been to minimize such possible financial burden. This difference persists even till date. There is no way our trade team can make specific commitment on BIPA during the talks," said the source.
The trade talk was scheduled to end on Tuesday. However, it was going on till late in the evening without any positive headway when this story was filed.
(With inputs from Prabhakar Ghimire in Kathmandu)
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