The Northern Corridor is only considered to be a trade corridor east of Kunming, particularly on the Kunming–Nanning section. International trade moves along this multimodal corridor, but most continue on eastward to the gateway ports of Shenzhen and Hong Kong, China. Fangcheng is predominantly a heavy-industry bulk port, therefore the rail connection is important, but handles little general and container cargo. There are no 'hard' or 'soft' infrastructure issues on this section as the roads are good and there are no international border crossings.
The western section of the Northern Corridor connecting Kunming with the northern part of Myanmar handles appreciable amounts of bilateral trade, consisting mainly of tropical fruit and vegetables that are northbound, and temperate fruit and vegetables that are southbound, along with construction materials and hardware. A connection to India through Muse is unlikely to become an important trade route between PRC and India, mainly because Kunming is not a major export generator or import consumer and the northeast states of India are still over 2,000km from any significant center of demand (Kolkata). This is seen more as a strategic link, rather than an important trade corridor.
