PESHAWAR – Trade between the two countries Pakistan and Afghanistan hasreduced through the Torkham port by 40 percent last year.
Four years back, commercial deals between Afghanistan and Pakistan amountedto $2 billion compared with $500 million. Truckers said they waited fordays to find customers.
A border security official in Torkham, who wished to go unnamed, toldPajhwok up to 500 trucks loaded with goods entered Afghanistan on a dailybasis a few months ago. But now the number has dropped to less than 300trucks.
He said that sugar, flour and cement were the main imports from Pakistan. Afew trucks of fresh fruits, vegetables and other goods were also importedinto landlocked Afghanistan.
He added exports from Afghanistan through the port too had witnessed afall. Currently, only slate, coal and a fewer truckloads of other itemswere exported to the neighbouring country.
Truckers say they had three to four trips weekly but now they have to becontent with one or two trips. Samiullah, who transports cement fromPakistan to Afghanistan, could hardly find a customer in a week or two.
Nangarhar Chamber of Commerce and Industry officials say business betweenthe two countries have worsened.
Shakirullah Safi, spokesman for the chamber, told Pajhwok the trade volumebetween Afghanistan and Pakistan was $2 billion four years ago. Now theamount has come down to $700 million.
He added the trade volume had further decreased in recent past to about$500 million.
The ACCI says Pakistan has asked for phytosanitary certificates from Afghantraders. However, he complained, Pakistan did not provide such certificatesfor its own products.
Khan Jan Alokozai, the ACCI deputy head, had told a press conference thatPakistan had imposed conditions on Afghan exports to that country over thelast five months.
He warned Afghan farmers, who crops were going to ripen, would face seriousproblems over the next two months if the problem was not resolved.
Afghanistan exported 1.2 million metric tonness of agricultural products,including 800 tonnes to Pakistan, Alokozai said.
The deputy head of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce, DaruKhan Achakzai, on Monday said tensions between the two countries and lackof reconstruction link>activities inAfghanistan had caused a decline in bilateral trade.
He said cement exports from Pakistan to Afghanistan had gone down becauseof limited reconstruction schemes in the war-torn country.
Bilateral tensions and problems the Afghan traders faced in the Pakistanhave forced Afghan businessmen to open new corridors with Iran, Tajikistanand other Central Asian countries.