May 15, 2003	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1424

ISLAMABAD, May 14: Trade with Afghanistan is heavily tilted towards Pakistan registering average growth of 110.57 per cent during the last three and half years.

Official statistics made available to Dawn on Wednesday showed that Pakistan had achieved a trade surplus of $74.422 million with Kabul in 1999-2000, which registered a constant growth of around 110.7 per cent in following years.

Officials said that following the 9/11 incident, Pakistan’s export to Afghanistan was constantly on rise as exporters were taking active interest in the re-construction there.

Trade with Afghanistan has turned into a huge surplus of $110.876 million in 2000-2001, $146.423 million in 2001-02, and in first nine months of this fiscal it stood at $154.943 million.

Officials said the nine-month increase showed participation of Pakistani exporters in the reconstruction and rebuilding needs of post-war Afghanistan.

“There are now no restrictions on export of any commodity in Pak rupee to Afghanistan except for the prohibited items under the export policy,” the officials said.

The statistics showed that during the first nine months around $5.398 million construction materials including cement were exported to Afghanistan.

Further break-up shows that goods worth $115.274 million were exported to Afghanistan in 1999-2000, while Islamabad imported goods worth $40.852 million during the same period.

In 2000-01, Pakistan exported goods worth $140.404 million against its imports of $29.528 million from Kabul during the same period.

Islamabad exports to Kabul rose to $169.281m in 2001-2 against imports of $22.858m from Afghanistan during the same period. While Pakistan exports to Afghanistan further increased to $177.568m during the July-March period of the current financial year against the imports of Rs22.625m from Afghanistan during the same period.

Product-wise major exports to Afghanistan showed that Islamabad exported $13.577 million live animals chiefly for food and $3.239 million fish and fish preparations to Afghanistan during the first nine months of the current financial year.