Pakistan, Afghanistan urged to review APTTA

Senior Vice President (SVP) of Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PAJCCI) and president, Frontier Customs Agents Group (FCAG), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi believed the bureaucracy of both Afghanistan and Pakistan are responsible for the difficulties faced due to the new Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA).
In a statement issued here on Friday, he said in case the governments of both countries do not go for immediate review of the agreement and not taking steps to redress the difficulties emerged in wake of the agreement will formally bring the process of transit trade between both neighbouring countries to an end and the whole beneficiaries will be India and Iran, which is neither in the interest of Pakistan nor Afghanistan.
Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi, who is also the vice chairman of the FPCCI standing committee on custom agents and All Pakistan Customs Agents Association (APCAA) stressed need for a comprehensive policy for taking benefits of the big Afghan market and growing markets of the Central Asian Republics (CARs).
He said that problems in Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) and trade agreements are resulting in the decline of exports to Afghanistan and Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA), which was signed under pressure, had been sabotaged badly. Sarhadi said that during last 6 years, almost ATT business had been shifted to Chahbahar and Bandar Abbas ports of Iran, which has declined the volume of bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan from $2.5 billion to $1.5 billion while both countries are making efforts to take it to $5 billion.
He said that the beginning of Indian trade with Afghanistan through Pakistan will create problems later as Afghan authorities are considering Pakistan and India as two big markets. He said that despite the announcement of tripartite agreement by federal government amongst Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan it could not be signed yet rather other Central Asian states should also be included in these agreements to promote trade with them. He urged the authorities of both countries to take decisions in light of better economic interests of the country and take steps to redress the difficulties created by the bureaucracy of both states.