ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister's Advisor on Commerce and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood has sought proposals from exporters for Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with Afghanistan.
Dawood recently led a delegation to Kabul and discussed avenues of signing a PTA between the two countries and Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA), expiring in February next year.
On Thursday, Dawood chaired a consultative session with the stakeholders and discussed different proposals received from Afghan government and presented by exporters and other stakeholders.
"Chaired the first consultative session with the stakeholders on proposed PTA at the Ministry of Commerce. Valuable inputs were proposed by various stakeholders," tweeted Dawood.
The Commerce Advisor said that the consultative process will now be followed by specific meetings so that Pakistan 's request list for the PTA can be finalized for discussion with Afghanistan expected to take place around middle of next month.
"I request all exporters to send their proposals to the Commerce Ministry at the earliest. Bilateral trade with Afghanistan has to be placed on a sustainable growth path," he added.
On APTTA, Afghanistan wants: (i) improvement in services including additions of good transports companies, under customs supervision apart from bonded carriers be considered; and (ii) apart from bonded carriers and the railways, the private trucks should be allowed under customs supervision to minimize the freight of ATT. It further proposes that shipping lines and port terminals must be bound to rationalise their charges and free days for detention should be increased to 40 days and demurrage to 15 days.
Pakistani has conveyed that its trucks must be allowed to move up-to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan border, as Afghan Trucks and vehicles should be allowed to move up-to Wagah Border and Karachi Sea Port.
Pakistan has also asked Afghanistan side to do away with the practice of providing only 5 days for transit shipment to CARs to cross its territory, after which 5000 AFG fine is charged per container per day. Pakistan further requested that time limit for its trucks and cargo crossing Afghanistan and unloading on the border of Tajikistan should be increased from 5 days to 15 days.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020