India mulls suspension of shipping links, postal services with Pak
After closing its airspace for Pakistan carriers, India is contemplating suspension of shipping routes and postal services with Pakistan.
Although postal services between the two countries were suspended in August 2019 in the aftermath of abrogation of Article 370 which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, these had resumed after three months.
India is now considering banning postal consignment exchange with Pakistan.
More importantly, the government is considering suspension of the limited shipping and sea trade routes available with Pakistan, a move that could slow the transport of essential commodities, including pharmaceuticals to Pakistan and drive up costs of imports.
Although trade between India and Pakistan through land routes remains suspended since 2019, some scale of trade between the two countries persists through sea and air routes. With Indian airspace for Pakistan carriers shut down yesterday, the availability, even though restricted, of shipping lanes for trade is important for Pakistan which uses these to import select products such as textiles, the mainstay of its economy.
A government reply in the Lok Sabha recently said current sea route trade with Pakistan involved Indian ports and cargo complexes including Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Inland Container Depot in Tughlakabad and Mundra SEZ.
In August 2019 after the abrogation of Article 370, Pakistan took a number of measures to downgrade ties, including the suspension of bilateral trade. Until then the principal trade route was the Attari-Wagah border.
In the absence of air and land routes, shipping links between the two countries have a natural significance considering the fact that despite the suspension of formal trade between India and Pakistan since August 2019, Pakistan has continued to import select goods from India, primarily through informal channels or via third countries.
Pakistan’s major imports from India in 2023 as documented by the United Nations COMTRADE database were valued at approximately $258.2 million and included organic chemicals, pharmaceutical products, plastics and inorganic chemicals, precious metal compounds and isotopes.
Officially, Pakistan does not use a direct sea route to import goods from India since August 2019 but the Government of India says limited sea trade routes still persist.
India