The governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan reached an agreement to allow supply trucks to cross between the two countries.  

The Afghanistan and Pakistan Joint Chamber of Commerce (APJCC) said the move is intended to facilitate trade between the two countries.  

“The government of Afghanistan and Pakistan—in a bid to provide further trade and transit facilities- has reached an agreement to issue short term licenses to the truck drivers, so the trucks can freely move in these two countries,” said Naqibullah Sapai, head of the APJCC 

Eonomists called the allowance of truck crossings between the two countries beneficial for economic development.  

“We have more than one billion dollar's worth of imports from Pakistan and around 500 million dollars in exports to Pakistan annually,” said Siar Qureshi, an economist.  

This comes as APJCC earlier said that the trade between Afghanistan and Pakistan had dropped by 25 percent.  

The economic analysts said the lack of good markets inside the country is a problem.

“The trade rate between Afghanistan and Pakistan has droped. The reason for the reduction of trade is that the purchase rate has dropped in the market. The Afghan markets face a lack of sale. On the other hand, due to lack of markets inside the country, our exports have increased,” said Sayed Massoud, an economist.  

Earlier, some Pakistani media reported that the trade rate between Afghanistan and Pakistan had dropped from $2.5 billion to $1 billion.