Executive summary, here I present an overall review of Afghanistan economic

report specifically in international trade. This report generated annually then

analyzing the trade data and comparing it to previous year trade data. At the end,
providing some policy recommendations.
An overview of Afghanistan trade, Afghanistan trade data indicate an upward trend
since 2008. It was 3.5 billion US Dollar and now in 2017 this worth 7.6 billion US
Dollar. World Bank data on trade as portion of GDP for Afghanistan in 2017 was
45.1 %. The major portion our trade belongs to import and small amount goes to
export. There is a vast deficit about 5.9 billion US Dollar in 2017. According to the
data of Afghanistan’s in World Integrated Trade Solution(WITS) for 2017, our
major trade partner respectively in export are countries like Pakistan, India, China,
Turkey and Iran. Our major import partner countries are Iran, China, Pakistan,
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Sectorial data of Afghanistan’s international trade indicate a high portion goes to
agricultural products. The major portion of Afghanistan import belongs to
Agricultural products about 30% in 1398 as well as the highest percentage of
Afghanistan export belongs to agricultural products as fresh fruits and dried fruits
are in charge of 45% of export. The export data for 1396 was 785M US dollar
compare to 875M US Dollar in 1397 shows 12% increment. Based on previous
year data, it is expected to increase in 13981.
Recommendations: based on analyzing the data and findings, I would recommend
the following policy issues for export promotion:
Afghanistan with the target increment of export especially in agricultural products
should work taking advantage of unexploited markets for Afghanistan agricultural
products.
1. Government should allocate more development projects for Ministry of
agriculture to expand its capacity for producing more products with better
quality.
2. Afghanistan public bureaus and private companies should invest on
packaging, processing and standardizing their products with top world
certificates to enter into international markets. Or simply should invest to
add value.

1
Source: nsia.gov.af
3. Regarding to transit; Afghanistan can create more air corridor with
countries like Russia, UK, Germany, France having untapped market for
Afghanistan agricultural products to shorten the distance in form of time.
4. Afghanistan can sign bilateral trade agreements and engagement in trade
union in regional and worldwide scales to facilitate tariffs reduction and
exemption for agricultural products.
5. Afghanistan can define some initiatives for import of capital goods, R&D,
refined seeds and fertilizers. In addition, initiatives for export of agricultural
products inform of long term loans with least interest rate for traders.