In Pakistan's trade book, 1.55 per cent of the total imports were from India, whereas, 2.55 per cent of Pakistan's total exports were to India during Fy19 (April to Nov).In India's trade books, Pakistan accounted for 0.1 per cent of total imports and 0.7 per cent of the total exports during Fy19 (April to Nov).
Total imports from Pakistan increased 7.70 per cent from $455.5 million in the year 2016-17 to $488.5 million from April to November in 2017-18. The imports from Pakistan comprises just 0.1% of the total Indian imports.
The top five items India imported from Pakistan in the year 2017-18 were fruits, cement, chemicals, fertilisers and leather products.
The total exports to Pakistan also went up 5.59 per cent from $1.82 billion in 2016-17 to $1.92 billion in April-November in 2017-18.
The top five items exported by India to Pakistan in the year 2017-18 included cotton, chemicals, textiles, pharmaceutical products and plastics.
Informal tradeAn ICRIER study estimates that informal trade between India and Pakistan was close to US$4.71 billion in 2012-13, which is almost twice the value of formal trade between the two countries in that year. The major reason for informal trade between the two neighbouring countries is that Pakistan maintains a negative list comprising of 1,209 items that cannot be imported from India.The main items India exported informally were jewellery (24 per cent), textiles (20 per cent), machinery and machine parts (8 per cent), electronic appliances (6 per cent), chemicals (5 per cent), paper (5 per cent) and tyres (5 per cent). India's informal imports from Pakistan mainly consisted of textiles (49 per cent), dried fruits (32 per cent), spices (10 per cent) and carpets (4 per cent).The majority of India's informal exports to Pakistan are routed via a third country, most frequently Dubai.
India is a $2.69 trillion economy. On the other hand Pakistan is a $1.14 trillion economy, which means it is 42 per cent smaller in size as compared to India.In Fy18 Indian exports were valued at $303 billion while India's imports were valued at $465 billion creating a negative trade balance of $162 billion.Pakistan in Fy18, had exports worth $23.2 billion and their imports stood at $60.89 billion, creating a trade deficit of $37.67 billion.The trade deficit of the country stood at $37.670 billion in FY18 compared to $32.488 billion in the same period in FY17.