India Begins Exports By Road To Pakistan

Direct trade by road resumed Tuesday between India and Pakistan for the first time in 40 years, as trucks laden with garlic from India rolled across the border.

The resumption fulfilled a long-standing demand by traders on both sides, who previously had to transport goods hundreds of miles to the nearest port or train station to get them across the border.

"We are thrilled, and the prospects for trade are immense," Rajdip Uppal, an exporter, said by telephone from the Indian border city of Amritsar.

In a sign of easing tensions between India and Pakistan after decades of hostility, both countries agreed earlier this year to allow exports of livestock and four kinds of vegetables and to meet shortages in Pakistan.

Indian exporters are allowed to send vegetables and livestock to Pakistan. In return, India will import some dry goods.

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 had been by sea or train, both resulting in long delays over customs' clearances. The delays also ruled out trade in perishable goods like fruit and vegetables or livestock.

Despite Tuesday's developments, traders remained dissatisfied with restrictive visa rules 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.

Kashmir remains divided between India and Pakistan, but both countries claim the entire territory.