The unaccounted import under the guise of Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) has been escalated to 1 billion dollars in 2014. The study conducted by the Pakistan Business Council (PBC) showed that the "Unaccounted for transit trade" touched to $1 billion in 2014 and it was calculated from the discrepancies reported in the import figures of Pakistan and Afghanistan customs.
Afghanistan and Pakistan signed a transit trade agreement in 2010 to cover the movement of Afghanistan''s external trade through Pakistan and it came into force in 2011. Since the signing of the APTTA, concerns have been expressed that Pakistan is losing its importance as a transit route for Afghanistan''s external trade, especially for Afghanistan''s imports due to the highly restrictive clauses of the APTTA.
The bulk of Afghanistan''s transit imports are still routed through Pakistan. The overall volume of Afghanistan''s imports have progressively decreased in the last few years-most probably as a result of a slowdown in the Afghan economy, Pakistan, however, continues to be the preferred route for Afghanistan''s importers. A comparison of the declared unit prices of the top Afghan transit trade items (as reported to Pakistan Customs) with the unit prices as reported by Afghanistan''s export partners showed that there was considerable undervaluation in items like fabric, glassware, office furniture, soaps, green tea, tires, generating sets etc.
Also, in certain items such as black tea, Afghanistan''s imports of the commodity for a population of roughly 31.0 million was $161.0 million while Pakistan with a population of nearly 182.0 million imported black tea worth $328.0 million. An interesting observation was that when a comparison was done with the prices at which Pakistan Customs was valuing Pakistan''s imports versus prices of exports to Afghanistan, significant undervaluation was found for Pakistan''s imports of fabric, tires and soaps.
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