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NEW DELHI, Aug. 15

NEPAL is set to press for certain modifications to the Indo-Nepal Trade Treaty that was renewed in March 2002 with some significant changes.

"We are concerned about the way some of the clauses of the treaty are being implemented by the Indian Government. We intend to express our concerns to the Indian side at the inter-governmental meeting slated later this week," the Commerce Secretary of Nepal, Mr Bhanu Prasad Acharya, told newspersons here.

He claimed that the Indian Government's decision to appoint Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) as the canalising agency for vanaspati imports from Nepal had resulted in an increase in transaction costs for its exporters.

"We are also not happy with the way copper products have been defined under the treaty. We feel that the existing definition needs more clarity and has to be more specific. Nepal is also keen that the quotas fixed on four items need upward revision," Mr Acharya said.

The India-Nepal Trade and Transit Treaty 2002 had put in place a quota system for the entry of four sensitive items - vegetable fats (1,00,000 tonnes per year), acrylic fibre (10,000 tonnes per year), copper products (7,500 tonnes per year) and zinc oxide (2,500 tonnes per year) - into India without payment of customs duties.

The treaty provided that imports of these items beyond the specified level would be allowed only on MFN basis (that is, with customs duties as per Indian import policy).

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