December 3: Chinese customs points, which have remained closed since January last year, have not come into full operation yet. Chinese side has been delivering up to five containers of goods daily across the border to Nepal in an attempt to avoid coronavirus from spreading.

However, Nepali containers have not been able to cross the border due to the restriction imposed by China.

President of the Nepal Himalayan Cross-Border Trade Association, Bachchu Poudel, informed that businessmen have started increasing their trade with other countries after the goods were stopped across the border.

The border checkpoints have been closed since January. The two countries had agreed to open the checkpoints from last May, but the checkpoints have not been fully operational.

He added that up to five containers of goods are being imported from the transit point where 100 containers of goods used to be imported daily during normal days. He added that many businessmen have been forced to quit their businesses and have been looking for alternatives to Chinese goods.

He further informed that Chinese containers have been dropping the goods up to the border as Nepali containers could not cross the border, adding that the traders have started looking for alternatives to trade with Chinese also because the cost has gone up by tens folds.

He said that many businessmen had to give up their trade and run away as their goods had been blocked at the border for the past 11 months. Some of them have even changed their business. According to him, those traders who were reliant on China have increased their trade with India, Bangladesh, Thailand and other countries.