A reopening six years in the making
Border trade between India and China through Uttarakhand's Lipulekh Pass — suspended since 2019-2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent military standoff along the Line of Actual Control — was cleared to resume for the 2026 trading season. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had written to Uttarakhand's Chief Secretary earlier this year confirming that the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Commerce and Industry had both granted clearance, following an August 2025 agreement between India and China to reopen three Himalayan trade routes: Lipulekh, Shipki La in Himachal Pradesh, and Nathu La in Sikkim. Pithoragarh's district administration issued trade passes to 100 traders, along with their assistants, porters, and mule handlers, out of 134 who had applied, following security verification by the Special Investigation Branch.
But the reopening has been repeatedly delayed by China
The trade was originally expected to begin in the first week of June, but that didn't happen. A group of 28 Indian traders travelled to Gunji — the last Indian village before the frontier — and were scheduled to cross into Tibet on July 8, but the final clearance from Chinese authorities never arrived. When the group tried again on July 11, they were turned back a second time and forced to return to Dharchula without being allowed to cross. The traders had to leave behind nearly 3,000 quintals of jaggery and sugar candy at Gunji, exposed to rain and moisture, unable to bring their goods back down or across the border.
Where the 'no goods' restriction actually comes from
This is the origin of the detail about traders being barred from carrying goods: following the second rejection, Dharchula Sub-Divisional Magistrate Ashish Joshi said Indian authorities had specifically requested that Chinese officials allow traders to cross into Tibet without their merchandise, simply so they could inspect the arrangements at the trading point at Taklakot in Purang county — a fallback measure aimed at salvaging something from the season rather than a standard trade rule. In other words, the restriction isn't a normal part of how this border trade operates; it's a workaround Indian officials proposed specifically because China wouldn't let traders in with goods at all.
A clearance that arrived too late to matter much
China has since given the go-ahead for the 28 traders to enter on August 1 — but because the border trade season runs only through October, traders and officials say there's limited practical benefit left in a season that was supposed to start nearly two months earlier. Adding to the frustration on the Indian side, traders have noted that Nepalese merchants have continued operating at the same Purang/Taklakot market throughout this period, while Indian traders were left waiting.
Why this route matters
Lipulekh Pass, sitting at roughly 17,500 feet near the India-Nepal-Tibet tri-junction, has been a seasonal trading corridor between Indian border communities and Tibet for centuries, historically exchanging Indian goods like tea, jaggery, sugar candy, and tobacco for Tibetan wool, garments, and other goods. Trade first resumed through Taklakot in 1992 after being suspended following the 1962 India-China war, and has been intermittently disrupted since — this is only the latest, and so far most protracted, interruption to its revival. The pass also carries broader diplomatic weight, since Nepal has separately and repeatedly objected to the resumption, reasserting its own claim over the Kalapani-Lipulekh-Limpiyadhura area — an objection India's Ministry of External Affairs has formally rejected as "neither justified nor based on historical facts and evidence."