Pakistan and Afghanistan''s technical level talks on facilitation of transit trade, enhancement of bilateral trade and economic cooperation have reportedly remained inconclusive against Afghan''s insistence on Pakistan opening land route for Indian goods, well informed sources told Business Recorder.
This was the crux of the two-day parlays between the officials of Pakistan and Afghanistan held in Islamabad, as a follow up of recent visit of Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani during which issues relating to bilateral and transit trade came under discussion. Pakistan ambassador to Afghanistan insisted that the technical delegation should be accorded state protocol but Ministry of Foreign Affairs regretted the request saying that it does not have funds for this purpose.
On Friday, the Afghan technical team comprising of officials from the Ministries of trade, finance, customs and energy held detailed discussions with the Pakistani team headed by Prime Minister''s Advisor on Commerce, Textile, Industries and Production and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood.
"Afghanistan wants Pakistan to facilitate two-way trade by allowing transit of Indian goods through the land route which Islamabad can not accept, at least for now," said one of the officials on condition of anonymity.
Afghan delegation, sources said, also maintained that Afghanistan has a number of issues with Pakistani custom officials with respect to border management, adding that Afghan team requested improvement in border management. Afghan delegation further stated that Pakistan should also tighten its control on borders to curb smuggling from Afghanistan which, according to Islamabad, is hurting its industry.
"Whatever strategy is formulated against smuggling, it must be two-way," the sources quoted Afghan team as saying. Afghanistan argues that cost of transit trade is making trade unfeasible and requested for one window facility in Karachi.
On the other hand, Pakistan wants imposition of quantitative restrictions on Afghanistan so that goods destined for Afghanistan should not be routed back to Pakistan. However, Afghan team argued that Pakistan must keep in mind requirements of Afghanistan and any such restriction would be in violation of spirit of World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Both teams also discussed possibilities of revision in Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA), draft of which is already lying with Afghan government since years.
Abdul Razak Dawood who believes that Afghan transit trade is harmful to Pakistan''s industry, assured the Afghan delegation that he would visit Afghanistan after August 15, 2019 and before that a technical team would visit Afghanistan for talks on bilateral and transit trade issues.
According to an official statement, a Technical Working Group (TWG) of Afghan officials is currently on a visit to Pakistan to negotiate issues that are hampering bilateral and transit trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The statement says that both sides exchanged their concerns and proposals to enhance bilateral trade.
The Advisor to PM highlighted that Pakistan and Afghanistan share long historical, political and economic ties. However, the volume of current bilateral trade is much below the available potential owing to trade barriers which are required to be removed forthwith with mutual consultation. Therefore, both countries need to take steps to exploit the untapped trade potential between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Further, Advisor informed the TWG that Pakistan''s industry is badly impacted by the pilferage of goods in our market through transit trade and asked the Afghan side to take necessary policy measures to address the issues of transit trade. Moreover, he also stressed the need for the Afghan side to finalize and share the amended draft of Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) as agreed earlier.
The Afghan side agreed to increase bilateral trade through mutual cooperation by addressing all the issues which are negatively affecting trade between the two countries. The head of delegation proposed the constitution of a joint commission in order to resolve all the issues including transit trade through mutual consultation and cooperation. He further mentioned that leadership of both the countries has the required political will which needs to be translated into cooperation on technical level by developing understanding of customs authorities on both sides.
The Advisor to PM stressed on the need to explore opportunities to maximize mutual trade volume and move forward for trade cooperation via communication and custom cooperation. He also indicated that Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement should be implemented in true letter and spirit. He mentioned that Pakistan can be instrumental in ensuring food security of Afghanistan.
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