Barriers to Trade Between India and Pakistan

India and Pakistan, the two largest economies in South Asia, share a common border, culture and history. Despite the benefits of proximity, the two neighbors have barely traded with each other.Normalizing economic and commercial ties has emerged as the most pertinent issue in India and Pakistan’s bilateral relations. The current paper looks at the large untapped trade potential between the two countries and aims to identify the bilateral trade possibilities and non-tariff barriers between India and Pakistan. The vast trade potential remains unrealized largely due to impediments in transport and transit facilities, a restrictive visa regime, the continuation of large informal trade flows, and the presence of nontariff barriers to trade between India and Pakistan. The idea of trade facilitation is simple: implement measures to reduce the cost of trading across borders by improving infrastructure, institutions, services, policies, procedures, and market-oriented regulatory systems.