Lack of trust hinders trade with Kabul

Demand to allow India to use Pakistan’s land route also hurts transit trade

ISLAMABAD:

Islamabad said on Monday that the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) had not been implemented in true spirit due to a lack of trust, political will and Kabul’s insistence on allowing Delhi to use Pakistan’s land route for trade.

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce, in a meeting, was informed that APTTA existed only on paper. The agreement is expiring on February 11, 2021 and Adviser to PM on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood will soon embark on a visit to Afghanistan to discuss the trade pact.

Commerce ministry officials told the meeting that other factors hampering transit trade included a lack of coordination and communication between customs authorities of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Other issues that need to be addressed include return of cargo injuring Pakistan’s industry, no movement of Pakistani trucks to Central Asian states and Afghan trucks to seaport and Wagah, 110% bank guarantee/ high service charges on Pakistani transit cargo for Central Asia, stopping Pakistani trucks at Jalalabad and no meeting of transit trade committee since 2016.

Parliamentary Secretary Shandana Gulzar said hurdles were created in the way of implementing the agreement due to which a loss of $3.6 billion had been suffered. Commerce Division Joint Secretary Dr Maria Kazi told the committee that one of the key demands of Afghanistan was to give India access to Kabul via land route, adding that if Pakistan accepted the demand, its exports would be affected.

She, however, said Indian products were allowed to be shipped to Afghanistan through the sea route under APTTA. She pointed out that Afghanistan, in its proposals, sought permission for loading Pakistani goods on its trucks on way back to Afghanistan. “Both countries will also explore possibility of using Pakistan Railways for transportation,” she said.

Shandana Gulzar, who is a member of the Pak-Afghan Parliamentary Group which is consulting different stakeholders on transit trade, shared the reasons that were discouraging bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan. “I have six or seven different drafts, which I will share with the committee and the ministry, on which work is under way,” she added.

The committee decided to summon security officials, through the Ministry of Interior, in order to know their concerns about APTTA.

NA Standing Committee Chairman Syed Naveed Qamar voiced concern over delay in announcing the wheat support price and regretted that it was the sowing season but support price had not been announced so far.

He pointed out that wheat flour prices were going up but no measure had been taken to arrest the rise. He alleged that importers, some other people and even officials were involved in making money from wheat and demanded that the Sindh government announce the support price.

The additional food security secretary revealed that all provinces, except for Sindh, had indicated the support price of wheat. The Punjab government recommended a price of Rs1,700 per 40 kg, he said.

According to a statement issued after the meeting, the committee was informed that Afghan transit trade was the obligatory transport of cargo from Pakistan ports to Afghanistan under Article V of GATT 1947, Convention on Transit Trade of Landlocked States 1965 and United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea 1982. The agreement was concluded keeping in view the best international practices and advances made in the fields of information technology, logistics and customs procedures.

The committee was informed that as opposed to the previous agreement, APTTA was based on complete reciprocity, access for Pakistan’s exports to the Central Asian region through Afghanistan and a formal arrangement for the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Coordination Authority to ensure effective implementation.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2020.

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