January 4, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 19, 1422

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NEW DELHI, Jan 3: The standoff between India and Pakistan triggered by an attack on the Indian parliament has hit bilateral trade but made little impact on India’s global commodities exports, traders and officials said on Thursday.

Traders said while trade between the two neighbours had come to a halt with the suspension of a crucial train service linking them, India’s business with other countries and port operations had not been hit.

“Most of the trade with Pakistan used to take place by train and now there is no source of sending or receiving goods,” Om Prakash Arora, chairman of the Indo-Pak Exporters Association, told Reuters in an interview.

Arora, based in the northwestern border town of Amritsar, said train services used to operate several times in a week.

The only rail link, a mere 28km from Indian town of Attari to Lahore, has operated continuously since 1977 but halted on Jan 1.

Two-way trade between the nations through the rail link is valued at around 19 billion Indian rupees ($393.9 million), the official said. But trade smuggled or routed through third countries is estimated at $1.0-1.5 billion a year.

India exported black pepper, cardamoms, red chillies, tea, sugar, vegetables, tyres, bicycle parts and some industrial goods to Pakistan. Pakistan mainly sold dried fruits to India.

Wadhwana said border tensions had occurred before but had not hit the country’s overall commodities trade.

“Even during the Kargil operations, there was not much impact on trade,” he said, referring to India’s clash with Mujahideen in Kargil heights in 1999.

Traders said the diversion of a large number of railway wagons to ferry supplies to troops on the borders had delayed deliveries slightly but had not disrupted India’s commodities business.

“(But) there has been no visible impact of the tension on the Indian commodity market,” said Atul Chaturvedi, senior vice-president at Adani Exports Ltd, one of India’s largest exporters.

“Business is dull but it has got nothing to do with the tension on the borders and is because of a lack of global demand,” said an official with a state-run grains trading agency.

Officials said security at major ports has been tightened as a precautionary measure but operations were normal.

“The port is functioning normally,” A.K. Joti, chairman of Kandla Port Trust, the country’s busiest port which handles imports and exports of all major commodities, told Reuters.

Joti said security at the port has been tightened and added the entry of visitors to witness port operations has been temporarily banned.—Reuters