India begins exports by road to Pakistan

Traders were exultant Tuesday after trucks laden with garlic and potatoes from India rolled across the border into Pakistan, marking the resumption of direct trade by road between the rival South Asian neighbors for the first time in more than half a century.

The trucks crossed the India-Pakistan border from the Wagah checkpoint on Monday evening, fulfilling a long standing demand of traders on both sides who previously had to transport their goods hundreds of miles away to the nearest port or train station and then across the border.

"This is the first time in more than five decades that direct trade has been allowed. We are thrilled and the prospects for trade are immense," exporter Rajdip Uppal said by telephone from the Indian border city of Amritsar.

As diplomatic relations between the decades-long rivals eased, India and Pakistan agreed earlier this year to allow exports of four kinds of vegetables and livestock to meet shortages in Pakistan.

Indian exporters are allowed to send onions, tomatoes, garlic, potatoes and livestock -- mostly goats, sheep and buffaloes -- to Pakistan. In return, India is keen to import lentils, cotton yarn, sugar and dry fruit from Pakistan.

Trade between the two countries reached $380 million in 2004. But unofficial trade through third country destinations like Dubai or Singapore totaled more than $1billion, according to Indian industry groups. Official trade is by sea or train both resulting in long delays over customs' clearances.

The delays also rule out trade in perishable goods like fruit and vegetables or livestock.

Direct trade using trucks will give a big boost to trade between the two countries, traders said.

"After all the months of dialogue between the leaders of India and Pakistan, this is the first practical milestone," said Uppal as he readied two trucks with 500 tons of garlic and potatoes to be dispatched to Pakistan later Tuesday.

But traders were dissatisfied with the restrictive visa regime under which Pakistani visitors cannot move freely across India.

"We want to invite Pakistani business leaders to India, to take them around and show them the extent of our business. But the existing rules allow a visa to only one or two cities," said Uppal.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over control of the Himalayan region of Kashmir, since their independence from Britain in 1947. Relations have improved since January last year, when they agreed to hold talks to settle the decades-old Kashmir dispute. Both countries claim the Himalayan region in its entirety.