Pakistan sustains huge losses from daily exports to Azerbaijan, Iraq amid COVID-19

Some Pakistani traders who export products to Iraq and Azerbaijan through Iran stood to lose 400 million rupees ($2.55 million) daily due to the total suspension of Pakistan-Iran trade, so they instead began using a sea route. That option is more expensive, but better than a total loss.

As of March 12, Pakistan had reported just 21 coronavirus cases, but the country’s shared border and trade activity with Iran has officials concerned as a number of the Pakistanis who have been infected had traveled to Iran.

Pakistan halted both air and land links with China and has been trying its best to keep the virus out. But Pakistan kept its border with Iran open initially, as isolation would have worsened the latter’s already-severe economic problems.

Unfortunately, that delay in closing the border threatens to present a public health emergency that Pakistan is ill-equipped to handle.

The terrain along the 959-kilometer (nearly 600-mile) Pakistan-Iran border makes it difficult to monitor, and Pakistan has also struggled to control what was a constant flow of people and goods through border gates.

Nevertheless, the traders support the border closure, and Waheed Ahmed, the head of their trade union, said in a statement, “If the coronavirus spreads in Pakistan, our trade with other countries would be directly affected because foreign nations will avoid buying from us. Therefore, this temporary halt is good in the longer run.”