2 major routes

  • Sea: Mumbai to Karachi
  • Land: via Wagah border through trucks

But trade is low

  • geopolitical tensions (esp Cross Border Terrorism from Pakistan to India) have impacted trade and commerce engagement
    • eg. post Pulwama attack 2019, India revoked MFN status given to Pak and also hiked customs duty on Pakistan's imports to 200%
    • Pakistan also suspended trade w/ India in 2019
    • however, argued that present Pakistani establishment is trying to normalize indo pak relations esp trade ties
    • Pak’s attempt to revive bilateral trade have often been stumped by domestic politics & revisionist policies
  • high tariff/ non tariff barriers
  • dysfunctionality of SAARC and SAFTA
    • blatantly flouted norms of SAFTA making it ineffective
  • failure of confidence building measures: both military & non military