Prime Minister's Adviser on Commerce, Textile, Industries and Production and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood on Tuesday cancelled his visit to Afghanistan due to violent incidence in Kabul which took the lives of over a dozen people, well-informed sources told Business Recorder.
Dawood was scheduled to leave for Kabul on a two-day visit (September 4-5, 2019) to discuss prospects of Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) and renegotiate Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA).
The sources said, Prime Minister, Imran Khan who is also Minister-in-Charge of Commerce Division has approved the visit of Abdul Razak Dawood along with his team. However, Pakistan's embassy in Kabul approached the Commerce Division and requested that the visit be postponed till the situation is normalized.
"Afghan government was ready to receive the delegation but Pakistan's embassy was not in favour of the visit due to recent violence (bombing) in Kabul," sourced revealed.
Commerce Division has worked on APTTA in the light of agreements signed by other landlocked countries like Nepal, adding that the issue of Afghan transit trade with India through land route also came under discussion during the recent visit of Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani but added that he (Dawood) clearly informed him that trade between Afghanistan and Pakistan is a bilateral not a trilateral issue, and requested Afghanistan not to raise it.
Pakistan is to propose that Afghanistan's tariffs should not be higher than whatever tariff is being charged in Pakistan. Pakistan's domestic industry has already briefed the government on the negative impact of APTTA.
According to sources, Afghanistan has also agreed to renegotiate APPTA, which lapsed a few years ago.
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