LCCI urges government to open Sust border

The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry has urged the government to open Sust border for business transport as trading goods including kinnows and potatoes of millions of dollars are stuck due to closure of the border causing huge financial loss to the exporters.
LCCI President Abdul Basit in a statement on Tuesday said the country is already facing huge trade deficit while measures like closure of Sust border are further aggravating the situation. He said surprisingly the Border Management Committee has neither taken the stakeholders on board nor communicated them about the border closure. "Since 2012, China has emerged as Pakistan's largest trading partner replacing the United States, therefore, there is a dire need of smooth running of business activities between the two countries otherwise the country would be facing huge loss," the LCCI president said.
Abdul Basit said that transporters in Afghanistan have also announced countrywide strike which is starting from December 12, 2016. He said that transit trade through Iran to Central Asia is very limited due to higher transportation cost. He said this is high time to export kinnows to Central Asian States which are major trade partners of Pakistan for said produce.
He said stoppage of transit of Pakistani merchandise through Sust border and Afghanistan would result in huge trade deficit that is already at the alarming level. He said the Pakistan trade deficit has increased to US $9.3 billion from July to October 2016. He said the trade deficit during the financial year 2016-17 is expected to reach $28 billion while it is estimated that during the current financial year exports would also decline to $19.5 billion that is not a good omen for the economy at all. The LCCI President said that the growing trade deficit, led by sharp slowdown in exports growth, is posing a key challenge to the macroeconomic stability of the country besides converting it into a consumer society. Abdul Basit said that relations between Pakistan and Russia have warmed up in the recent months. He said the good relations should be translated into good trade, investment and economic ties between the two countries.