The halt of trade at the Rimdan-Gabd crossing, one of Iran's main borders with Pakistan, has created serious challenges for traders and truck drivers due to banking problems and rising transportation costs. While passenger traffic continues at this border, commercial activities have been severely impacted.
Banking Issues and Trade Halt
Peyman Sanandaji, the head of the Transportation Commission of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, previously stated that passenger traffic across the land border between Iran and Pakistan remains active. However, banking issues have complicated Iran's exports to Pakistan. According to him, Pakistani importers must submit an electronic import form to their banking network for importing Iranian shipments, which has faced serious obstacles due to Iran's banking sanctions.
Seyed Hossein Hosseini, the director general of the Transit Office of the Road Maintenance Organization, stated on October 17 that commercial activities at the Rimdan-Gabd crossing have been halted. Therefore, reports of continued passenger traffic should not be interpreted as a continuation of commercial activities at this crossing. This situation is particularly significant for exporters, as the halt in trade can lead to delays in shipments, changes in truck movement schedules, and increased ancillary transportation costs.
Truck Halts and Increased Transportation Costs
At the Iran-Afghanistan border, the prolonged halt of trucks has become one of the main concerns for transportation companies. Ehsan Malekzadeh, the chairman of the board of the Association of International Transportation Companies of Iran, has announced that about 2,271 trucks are halted behind the Dogharoun border. Meanwhile, Iran and Afghanistan engage in exports, imports, and transit, with the Dogharoun and Milak terminals being key trade routes between the two countries.
The halt of trucks on this route can increase costs related to fleet downtime, driver wages, and operational costs for transportation companies. The longer the waiting period, the lower the capacity of trucks to undertake subsequent trips, and exporters may face greater difficulties accessing ready fleets.
Road and border issues, especially under the current circumstances where exports and imports are severely affected, could lead to a decrease in Iran's market share in countries like Pakistan. Currently, imports from Pakistan to Iran are still reported as possible, but this situation indicates that exports and imports on either side of a border do not necessarily have the same conditions.
In such circumstances, the continued rail entry of goods from China is considered one of the important supply routes for Iran. According to Sanandaji, freight trains from China enter Iran's rail borders via Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. This route strengthens Iran's rail connection with Central Asia and China and provides an alternative means for transporting part of the shipments.
Farzaneh Sadegh, the Minister of Roads and Urban Development, emphasized the need to convert the region's geographical capacities into an efficient network of road, rail, and maritime routes at the meeting of transport ministers of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) member countries, calling for regional cooperation to lead to specific and assessable decisions.
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