Pakistan-Afghanistan Trade Halt Costs Businesses $2.5 Billion as Medicine Exports Fall 30%

Trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been stopped for a year, and business groups say the losses have now passed $2.5 billion. The border was closed after clashes in October last year, and it has still not fully reopened. The fighting at the time was covered in Pak-Afghan Forces Exchange Heavy Fire in Upper Kurram.

The medicine industry is among the worst hit. Pakistan’s pharmaceutical exports fell by 30.26 per cent in the last financial year, to $319 million, down from $457 million a year earlier. The fall has continued this year. Exports dropped another 25.5 per cent in the first quarter, to $73.3 million.

Afghanistan was once one of the biggest markets for Pakistani medicines. It took about a third of the country’s drug exports, worth $155.7 million in the 2024-25 financial year. That market is now almost closed.

Factories in Peshawar are feeling the pain. Fedro Pharmaceuticals, based in the Hayatabad industrial area, sent about 70 per cent of its production to Afghanistan and Central Asia. With the border shut, that trade has stopped.

Food exporters have also been hit. Trucks that once crossed the border every day with fresh produce and other goods are standing idle, and traders on both sides are losing money.

Business leaders want the government to act. Tauqeer ul Haq, a former chairman of the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association, has urged both countries to restart the medicine trade at least. Medicines, he argues, should not be blocked by politics, because patients suffer on both sides. Pakistan has also halted trade on its Iran border this year: Pakistan Suspends Trade With Iran Through Gabd-Rimdan and Taftan Crossings.

Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has assured business groups that he will raise the matter. But there is still no date for the border to reopen, and for now the trucks stay parked. Read more of our business coverage.