Pakistan Collects Record 15 Billion Rupees at the Khunjerab Pass as Tariffs Redraw Asian Trade Routes

Pakistan Customs collected 15 billion rupees on imports from China through the Khunjerab Pass in the 2025-26 fiscal year, a rise from prior years for the crossing, while goods worth 2.8 billion rupees moved outward to China and Central Asia. Khunjerab sits above 4,600 metres and handles a small fraction of Pakistan's total trade, which makes the revenue jump a statement about direction rather than volume.

The same tariff environment is producing a dispute over Indian exports. The Hindu examined American claims that Chinese goods are being relabelled in India to avoid duties, and reported that trade data and industry sources show little Chinese ownership of the pumps and components that India-based companies ship to the United States. In several cases the beneficiaries of the arrangement are American firms that own the Indian suppliers.

Both stories describe the same mechanism. When one border becomes expensive, cargo finds another, and the transit country collects the fee. Overland Eurasian routes and third-country assembly are the two main answers available to exporters that cannot absorb a tariff, and neither reduces the underlying cost. They redistribute it, and they add handling steps that were not economic before the duties existed.