Afghanistan’s top diplomat in Beijing called on China to let in more of its agricultural products, saying that expanded trade would do more to ease a humanitarian crisis next door than fiscal aid.
Ambassador Javid Qaem, a holdover from the Islamic Republic government that fell to the Taliban, said in an interview Friday more flexible trade rules on the Chinese side and better logistics could help Afghanistan expand its annual exports of agricultural products like pine nuts from $500 million to as much as $2 billion of annual trade with its larger neighbor.
