Border challenges stall Pakistan-Afghanistan trade

PESHAWAR: Peshawar serves as the gateway to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, facilitating the import and export of various products. The Torkham border acts as a pathway, enabling the expansion of trade between the two countries on a global scale. Pakistan and Afghanistan share a border spanning over 2,600 kilometres. Following the implementation of border fencing, illegal movements of goods across the border have been curtailed to some extent. There are 18 trading points along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, with key crossing points being Torkham and Chaman. Torkham, situated in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and Chaman, located in Balochistan, are connected to Afghanistan’s Jalalabad and Kandahar provinces respectively. According to a survey conducted by the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce, trade between the two countries amounted to $2.5 billion in 2010. However, this figure dropped to $1.6 billion before experiencing a slight increase to over $1.8 billion in 2022-23.