KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan dropped by 74% in the 2025–26 fiscal year, from $1.3 billion to $358 million as prolonged border closures and strained relations disrupted cross-border commerce, Pakistani media reported.
The Pakistani newspaper Dawn, citing data from the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan, reported that bilateral trade dropped from $1.3 billion in the 2024–25 fiscal year to $358 million in 2025–26.
The decline comes amid prolonged disruptions at major border crossings between the two countries. Torkham and Spin Boldak, two of the busiest crossings, were closed following deadly clashes in October 2025. Other crossings, including Kharlachi, Ghulam Khan and Angoor Ada in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, have also remained closed for all kinds of trade.
The closures have disrupted businesses, transport operators and communities that depend on cross-border trade.
Afghanistan’s transit trade through Pakistan has been severely affected. Before the Taliban’s return to power, the volume stood at nearly 89,000 containers valued at about $5 billion. In the outgoing fiscal year that figure plunged to 11,592 containers worth $367 million, according to the report.
Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan include pharmaceutical products, cement, plastics, rice, fruits and vegetables. Afghanistan’s main exports to Pakistan include onions, tomatoes, agricultural seeds, grapes, dried apricots, apples, coal and unwrought lead.
The disruptions have affected Pakistan’s industrial, agricultural and transport sectors. Pharmaceutical exports to Afghanistan, which were worth about $130 million in the 2023–24 fiscal year, have also been hit by the loss of access to a key market. The Taliban banned pharmaceutical imports from Pakistan last year.
According to the report, the suspension of daily shipments of potatoes and other vegetables has contributed to a 50% reduction in potato cultivation inside Pakistan and a corresponding drop in local prices. The transport sector has experienced a near-total slowdown, with many lorry owners forced to sell their vehicles after operations remained suspended for extended periods.
Junaid Altaf, a former president of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Dawn that the prolonged closure of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border had deepened economic difficulties for the business community in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“For a province already facing structural economic disadvantages, the closure has not merely disrupted a trade route, it has further weakened the economic opportunities on which its businesses, workers and border communities depend,” he said.
The trade decline comes amid deteriorating relations between Pakistan and the Taliban authorities over cross-border militancy. Islamabad accuses the Taliban of sheltering militant groups, including Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and has demanded concrete and verifiable action against groups it says operate from Afghan territory. Taliban authorities reject the allegations, saying no such groups operate from Afghan territory and that insecurity inside Pakistan is an internal matter for Islamabad to resolve.
