Economy, Foreign Trade

Afghanistan’s chief exports are dried fruits and nuts, hand-woven carpets, wool, cotton, animal hides and pelts, and precious and semiprecious gems. Afghanistan imports food, motor vehicles, petroleum products, and textiles. The USSR was Afghanistan’s chief trading partner even before the 1979 Soviet invasion, and this relationship intensified in the 1980s. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the leading purchasers of Afghan products were the former Soviet republics, Pakistan, Britain, Germany, and India. The United States suspended normal trade relations with Afghanistan from 1986 to 2002. In 2000 exports amounted to $125 million, while imports cost $524 million.