Afghanistan’s Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) Tuesday said that Pakistan’s enforcement of new border restrictions have not had significant implications for the national economy and prices of  products in the local markets.
 
Pakistan’s move to destabilize normal trade and commercial activities with Afghanistan and the central Asian countries, will only harm its own economy, the ACCI said in a statement on Tuesday.
 
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MoCI) has said that Afghanistan maintains the right to seek the settlement of its trade and commercial problems in line with the honorable reputation the country economically has gained among the international organizations.
 
Optimism of the stability of the Afghan economy comes amid fresh border restrictions by Pakistan on its borders with Afghanistan.
 
On Thursday, Pakistan announced extra security measures and border restrictions on the border between the two countries following Saturday’s deadly blast at a Sufi shrine in Pakistan’s Sindh province.
 
Islamabad claimed that the move was imperative in order to control the infiltration of terrorists infiltrating into Pakistani from Afghanistan.  
 
Pakistan’s sudden move of introducing border restrictions has led to uncertainties within the business communities in the two countries.
 
The ACCI says that Pakistan’s new border restrictions will hinder Islamabad’s access to Afghan and central Asian markets. The unwarranted move will also inflict devastative repercussions on the economic development and commercial relations of Pakistan with other states.
 
“Pakistan harms its own economy, because it loses income from large markets of Afghanistan and the central Asian countries from where a large part of its trade ties are vested,” said Tawfiq Dawari, deputy head of ACCI.
 
“Only 20 percent of Afghanistan’s goods are imported from Pakistan and sold. People are not interested in Pakistani products, because of this border closure. This does not leave any major impact on prices,” said local trader Khalilurrahman.
 
The volume of the trade balance between Afghanistan and Pakistan is estimated to be $1.5 billion. Of that, the share of Afghanistan’s exports to Pakistan is estimated at 15 percent while 85 percent of the share is made up of Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan.
 
The trade volume between Pakistan and central Asian countries is around $4 billion, the ACCI said.
 
The ACCI said that Pakistan also collects large amounts of money through smuggling from the Afghan and central Asian routes.
 
“Today Afghanistan has established its good reputation among regional countries and major organizations. We will act against the problems on the basis of our national interests,” said Musafir Qoqandi, spokesman to Ministry of Commerce and Industries.
 
Economic experts say that border closure between Afghanistan and Pakistan will also impact transportation between the two neighbors as well as commercial relations along the border regions.

It will also impact the larger economy of the two nations.