Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim on Wednesday said the energy crisis had primarily led to a decline in industrial production and feared the trade deficit would rise further if the energy issue was not resolved at the earliest. Responding to the attention notice on the 21.7 percent rise in trade deficit in the preceding months, the minister said the government was trying its best to reduce trade deficit and significant progress had been made in this regard. He said the country’s exports had increased by 28.2 percent while imports had surged 16.1 percent from May to July 2010. He said the nine percent rise in edible oil import had triggered the imports increase during the said period.