ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan here on Thursday agreed to further strengthening of bilateral trade and economic relations by addressing bottlenecks in way of promoting trade and investment between the two countries.
The two-countries were also agreed for facilitating the trade and commerce sectors of their respective countries besides starting negotiation on Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) and trilateral trade agreement for benefit of the people of both the countries.
The consensus in this regard was developed in a two-day meeting of Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Coordination Authority (APTTCA) which was co-chaired by Secretary Commerce, Government of Pakistan, Shahzad Arbab and Acting Minister for Trade and Commerce Afghanistan, Muzammil Shinwari.
While welcoming the Afghan delegation, Secretary Commerce said that Pakistan attaches high priorities with bilateral trade and economic relations with the brotherly country.
He said that Afghanistan was the largest trading partner of Pakistan and bilateral trade of both countries had crossed $ 2 billion mark during the year 2014 which would be further enhanced during the days to come.
Both the countries had signed APTTCA under which the economic relations of both countries flourished and it is expected that the trade and investment opportunities would further grew by removing the hurdles in bilateral trade, he remarked.
Shahzad Arbab said that to address issues in trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan Federal Board of Revenue has suggested for electronic data sharing (EDI) as well as web-box besides providing training to Afghan officials.
It is expected that the outcomes of the meeting will enable the both sides to facilitate the businessmen for the promotion of bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
He said that PTA between Pakistan and Afghanistan was also discussed during Afghan's President visit to Pakistan adding that it is expected that trade experts of two-countries would play their role for early completion of the modalities of PTA to enhance commercial connectivity between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Speaking on the occasion, Acting Minister for Trade and Commerce Afghanistan, Muzammil Shinwari thanked for organizing the 5th meeting of APTTCA which would help to further promote trade relation between the two countries.
He said that APTTCA provided sound platform to enhance trade by facilitating the private sectors of the two-countries.
He also highlighted the different issues faced by the private sector and stressed the need for resolving other pending matters relating APTTCA to facilitate them.
He also asked for providing a list of traders to check the smuggling of Pakistani goods to Central Asian states and organizing regular meetings of APTTCA to address the issues relating trade and investment.
Addressing the meeting Ambassador of Afghanistan to Pakistan Janan Musa urged the need for starting economic strategic dialogue to develop political and economic confidence between the two countries.
He also stressed for regular interaction of trading communities of both countries which would boost up the confidence and promote the bilateral trade and investment.
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