HE agreement between Islamabad and Beijing to set up a green channel at the Sost-Khunjerab border for agricultural and allied products should ease bilateral cross-border trade. Priority customs processing, risk-based inspections and faster clearance of perishables should cut delays and the cost of moving goods. The question is if it will help Pakistan`s agricultural exports. The two customs administrations will share information, including risk alerts, which should speed up inspections without loosening oversight.

Quick clearance matters most for farm produce, which spoils if held up, costing growers money and competitiveness. Reliable access to the Chinese market could help farmers and exporters find new buyers and earn more foreign exchange. The trade gap shows how much remains to be done. Last year, Pakistan Customs collected a record Rs15bn in revenue on imports through Khunjerab, while exports to China and Central Asia via the route came to just Rs2.8bn. The two figures measure different things and cannot be compared directly. But they do show how little we export through this corridor.

Pakistan needs to identify which agricultural products it can export, meet Chinese quality standards, and build dependable supply chains. Fruit and vegetables from Gilgit-Baltistan and other northern areas stand to gain from better access. However, exporters need cold storage, refrigerated transport, grading and packaging facilities, and predictable logistics. Weather is another constraint. The Khunjerab Pass is generally open for trade and travel from April to November; heavy snow shuts it in winter. Both countries should work towards keeping it open yearround. A green channel is of little use if exporters cannot count on the route for regular deliveries throughout the year.

The initiative can also be seen in the wider context of CPEC.

Pakistan has tended to treat its economic relationship with Beijing mainly as a source of infrastructure investment and imports. Market access, local business participation and two-way trade deserve equal weight. There is no doubt that exchanging customs documents electronically should remove procedural bottlenecks and also curb under-invoicing of Chinese imports, which remains a serious drain on the exchequer. Beijing`s reported exports exceed Pakistan`s recorded imports from China by around $5bn, a gap that points to large-scale misdeclaration at the border and heavy revenue losses. It is time this too was fixed. Honest valuation would shield local producers and manufacturers from unfair competition and factory closures. The green channel is a useful step, but it should be judged by results: growth in Pakistani exports, the number of businesses reaching the Chinese market, and the income of domestic producers.