The movement of cargo under the new Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) shall be allowed on internationally acceptable and verifiable standards in sealed trucks except fresh fruits and vegetables.
This was stated by Additional Collector of Customs Exports Syed Tanveer Ahmed during a seminar on the awareness campaign of the APTTA at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry in collaboration with Directorate of Training & Research (Customs), Islamabad.
Syed Tanveer and Javaid Mansoor, Executive Secretary, National Trade & Transport Facilitation Committee giving the details said that movement of cargo should be allowed on internationally acceptable and verifiable standards in sealed trucks except fresh fruits and vegetables. They informed that trucks would move on the designated routes and within the stipulated time, have to reach the destination.
Rubina Wasti, Director Revenue Division FBR said the seminar aimed at building capacity of the concerned parties for ensuring smooth and effective implementation of the agreement. She informed that the recent agreement is 180 pages comprehensive document that has replaced the previous 12-page agreement, signed in 1965.
Highlighting the importance of new agreement she said, it would further strengthen the trade and multilateral relations with Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics overcoming various bottlenecks. Director said that the old agreement had lost its utility and there was a need of new agreement to streamline the trade activities. She noted that effective legal and enforcement measures will help in controlling smuggling along with easing out trade with Afghanistan and Central Asian States.
Giving the details of the APTTA, she mentioned that new agreement include arrangements for logistics, customs formalities, safety and security of cargo, protocols and annexures. It also contains Dispute Resolution mechanism, tracking systems of vehicles, bank guarantees, financial securities and many other important articles, she maintained. She said that Agreement was supposed to be implemented by February 12th but Afghan government has some reservations on its implementation.
President of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Mahfooz Elahi said that business community had great apprehensions about the new agreement. He said that recently the agreement was shared with the business community and hoped that series of awareness seminars, would help create better understanding about its framework and clearing doubts.-PR
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