In 2019, India and Pakistan took severe measures to curb the free flow of goods between them. The terror attack in Pulwama, the cross-border air strikes, and the dilution of Article 370 in J&K were the major reasons for this. However, over the past few days, Pakistan has been reeling from catastrophic floods which have flattened standing crops and led to a fear of food shortage. In this context, Pakistan’s Finance Minister said last week that the government could consider importing vegetables and other edible items from India. Data show that before 2019, Pakistan was dependent on India for meat, cotton, and wheat and cereal flour imports. After the curbs, it replaced India’s share with imports from China, the U.S. and Brazil.
Import dependence
The chart shows Pakistan’s imports from India (in $million). The table shows Pakistan’s top trade partners and India, their import share and import ranking. For instance, in 2008, 4% of Pakistan’s imports came from India, which ranked 8th among Pakistan’s partners. In 2021, only 0.5% of imports were from India, which ranked 36.
