The National Assembly was informed on Thursday that the country earned total $113.198 billion foreign exchange through exports during the last five years. The Ministry of Commerce and Textile, in written reply, told the House that the country earned $ 23.212 billion foreign exchange in 2017-18, $ 20.4 billion in 2016-17, $ 20.787 billion in 2015-16, $ 23.67 billion in 2014-15 and $ 25.11 billion in 2013-14. In another reply, the Ministry said that a total of $178.4 million of cotton exported during the last three years. The Ministry said that Pakistan attaches high importance to regional blocs and regional countries in revamping economic policy such as Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), Central Asian Republics (CARs) and Afghanistan. The overall bilateral trade of Pakistan with the ECO region has increased from US$ 2598.78 million in 2016-17 to US$ 2942.93 million in 2017-18. The Ministry said that Pakistan has trade surplus with the ECO region with the exports US$ 1779.89 million and imports US$ 1163.04 million during 2017-18. Pakistan's exports to CARs accounted for US$ 100 million while imports from the region were at US$ 40 million during 2017-18.
It said that Afghanistan is a neighbour and historical trade partner hence prospects for Pakistan's bilateral trade with Afghanistan are huge. Moreover, Afghanistan is key to Pakistan's access to Central Asian States. Although, Afghanistan's Imports have declined in the past 4 years, still Pakistan is able to maintain a steady export. Afghanistan is the 4th largest export destination for Pakistan after US (US$ 3.5 billion), China (US$ 1.6 billion) and UK (US$ 1.5 billion) in 2017-18. Total export value from Pakistan to Afghanistan was US$ 1.2 billion in 2016-17 which increased to US$ 1.47 billion in 2017-18.