KARACHI: Thousands of import shipments bound for landlocked Afghanistan are stranded at Pakistani seaports or border crossings, a business association in the country said on Tuesday, making traders from the two countries liable to pay as much as $200 per container daily on account of port demurrage and shipping detention charges.

Pakistan and Afghanistan had fierce border clashes last month that killed dozens of people on both sides before a ceasefire was mediated by Qatar and Türkiye. The fighting followed Pakistan’s accusations that Afghanistan shelters militants who launch cross-border attacks targeting civilians and security forces. Afghanistan denied the allegations, describing Pakistan’s security challenges as an internal matter.

The two sides also held talks in Istanbul to extend the truce with a monitoring and verification mechanism involving the mediating nations. However, the negotiations broke down amid an atmosphere of distrust, with both sides blaming each other for not showing enough flexibility.

The situation also led to a border closure that affected both bilateral and transit trade.

“The potential for bilateral trade is $5 billion,” Junaid Makda, President of the Pakistan Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce & Industry, told Arab News.

Makda’s association represents traders and businessmen from Pakistan and Afghanistan and is mandated to not only transform the economic landscape of the South and Central Asian region but also facilitate peace prospects and to curb militant violence.

“We had gradually increased the bilateral trade to $2.69 billion by 2018, which has now reduced to a few million dollars,” he continued.

Official figures show that both neighboring states were beginning to increase bilateral trade, which surged more than 40 percent to $804.3 million last year in 2024-25 from a year earlier. Pakistan’s exports to war-torn Afghanistan stood at $778.4 million while imports at a meager $25.9 million, according to the State Bank of Pakistan.

This bilateral trade came to a halt last month amid the worst border clashes since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of Kabul.

Prior to that, the two countries traded goods worth $166 million in the first three months of the current fiscal year until September, according to the official data. However, there was a complete end to the trade amid military exchanges that began in October.

“The quantum of our business [with Afghanistan] has declined to less than a billion dollars during the last one month,” Makda said, fearing the stoppage of legal trade could pave the way for border smuggling.

Earlier this week, the Pak-Afghan joint chamber wrote a letter to Pakistan’s commerce ministry requesting its immediate intervention for the border opening, which it said was inflicting huge losses on Pakistan’s economy and trade.

“Because of these border closures, thousands of containers have been stranded inside Pakistan, including a very large volume of cargo belonging not only to Afghanistan but also to Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states,” Makda said in the letter.

Pakistan’s commerce ministry spokesperson, Naveed-ul-Haq Kallu, did not respond to questions seeking his comments on the issue of the border closure with Afghanistan.

However, the foreign office in Islamabad has ruled out any trade or economic engagement with Afghanistan in recent weeks until the administration in Kabul takes action against militant groups targeting Pakistani civilians and security forces.

Makda said local traders were facing a “severe crisis” due to the ongoing conflict and “prolonged closure of the border crossings.”

“All financial losses are falling entirely on our Pakistani traders, who are compelled to pay daily port demurrage charges and shipping line detention charges, amounting to nearly $150-200 per container per day,” he said.

Demanding a complete waiver of the demurrage and detention charges at Pakistani ports, Makda said because of the conflict people were losing their jobs and vehicles loaded with export and transit shipments had been parked at the Pak-Afghan borders for about a month.

“Export operations to Afghanistan have come to a complete halt, affecting industries, transporters, freight forwarders, laborers and ultimately the national economy,” he said.