India-Pakistan trade stood at USD 1.35 billion during April-December 2022

The bilateral trade between India and Pakistan has increased to USD 1.35 billion during April-December 2022 as against USD 516.36 million in the whole 2021-22, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. Similarly, the country’s trade with China has aggregated at about USD 87 billion during the nine-month period of this fiscal, according to the data provided by Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

In 2019, Pakistan suspended bilateral trade with India after New Delhi revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

The trade with Pakistan stood at USD 329.26 million in 2020-21 and USD 830.58 million in 2019-20, the data showed.

“The government continues to engage pro-actively with SAARC countries to strengthen trade and economic relations. Issues impacting bilateral trade raised by these countries are taken up for an early resolution,” she said.

Replying to a separate question on foreign trade data, the minister said that the data are released in three stages — press release (15th day of the following month); provisional data for 168 principal commodities (25th day of the following month) and the final data on the 45th day of the following month.

She said that the efforts at ensuring data availability with minimal discrepancies is a continuous process.

“The Department of Commerce has taken note of media reports on data discrepancies,” she added.