Nepal starts to get goods other than medical items from China through land route

Nepal has started to receive non medical goods from China through the reopened Tatopani-Zhangmu border point after initially getting supply of medical goods only, a senior official at Tatopani Customs Office said.

On March 25, the Nepali government had decided to reopen this border point along with Rasuwagadhi-Kerung (Geelong) border point for importing essential goods including medical ones to fight COVID-19 pandemic as well as food items from China.

These two international border points had remained closed since late January after the COVID-19 outbreak in China. But only Tatopani-Zhangmu border point reopened at the moment.

"We have received 12 containers of apples and garlic from China in the last few days and a few of containers of them left for capital Kathmandu on Tuesday after completing the customs clearance process," Lal Bahadur Khatri, chief customs officer at Tatopani Customs, told Xinhua on Tuesday. "Additional six containers carrying agriculture related machineries have also arrived at the customs yard on Tuesday from China."

Since first getting medical goods from China through the reopened border point on April 8, Nepal has so far received more than one million masks, over 127,000 pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) and many other medical goods from China through this border point, according to the Tatopani Customs Office.

"But, we have started to get supply of goods other than medical goods for the last few days after the reopening of the border," said Khatri. "We are in the direction conducting normal trading activities through this border point."

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)