NEW DELHI: Notwithstanding all the noise made over Indo-Pak ties being further harmed because of the Mumbai terror-strikes, bilateral trade between the two countries has touched a new milestone.
There has been a 105 percent increase in bilateral trade between India and Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah land route. The trade increased to Rs4.63 billion in 2008-09. Despite diplomatic issues, trade seems to be growing, thanks in large part to the opening of this route to trucking in 2007. Before that, trucks had to off-load at the border and goods had to be carried on foot to be loaded onto Pakistani trucks.
“The allowing of cross-border movement of trucks has played an important role in providing impetus to the bilateral trade between the two countries,” according to Amritsar Customs Commissioner Tarkeshwar Singh.
There has been a 136-percent increase in total import of commodities from India, to Rs1.74 billion in 2007-08. The trucks were earlier allowed only till the border, from where the porters carried the cargo on foot.
Imports from Pakistan, via this land route, have increased by 2.5 percent to Rs530 million in 2008-09 as against Rs517 million in the preceding year.
Indian exports to Pakistan include potato, onion, tomato, garlic and maize, with perishable items constituting over 70 percent of total exports. Through this route, India primarily imports dry fruits from Pakistan, which largely come from Afghanistan. With this increase in bilateral trade having reached such heights, prospects of either country taking any step to discourage trade is low.
Indo-Pak trade has also increased through other routes, with the total import — through trains — of cements and dry fruits having jumped to Rs460 million in 2008-09 compared to Rs448 million in 2007-08. Rail-carried exports from India of commodities such as dyes, soybeans, tires and tubes have increased to Rs8.9 billion in 2008-09 compared with Rs8.5 billion in the preceding year.
Export of Indian tomatoes increased by 18 percent in the three months following the Mumbai attacks due to adverse weather conditions destroying crops in Pakistan.
Though cement imports from Pakistan were affected in January-February due to weakening of the rupee and re-imposition of countervailing duty (CVD), these exports have jumped back to normal monthly levels of around 60,000 tons. They had fallen to 11,000 tons in January.