Kathmandu, Sept. 23 -- Kathmandu and New Delhi last week agreed to review the much-awaited Nepal-India Trade Treaty to address non-tariff barriers and Nepal's ballooning trade deficit.

Experts have pointed out that significant discriminatory barriers such as para-tariffs and non-tariff measures, high trading costs and inefficient trade facilitation have contributed to Nepal's high trade deficit.

As Nepali farmers cannot compete with Indian farmers on production costs, huge quantities of primary agricultural products are imported from India into Nepal. One of the reasons for the trade deficit is the restrictive provisions introduced during the 2002 renewal of the trade treaty, which tied the duty-free preferences for primary products to ...