Businessmen seek changes to Af-Pak Transit Trade Agreement

Urges amendments to APTTA 2010 for better trade relations

PESHAWAR:

Businessmen dealing in Pak-Afghan trade have suggested amendments to the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) 2010 through consultation with stakeholders. These suggestions were made during the visit of a delegation of businessmen, led by Coordinator Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PAJCCI) Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, to the office of Director General Transit Trade, Wajid Ali.

Speaking on the occasion, Sarhadi said APTTA 2010 has several lacuna as a result of which 70% of transit trade has been shifted from Karachi port to Bandar Abbas in Iran. He demanded the revival of Goods in Transit to Afghanistan (GITA) service through lost cargo via train between Peshawar to Karachi and from Karachi to Chaman. For this purpose, he urged for SRO 121 to be repealed in order to allow GITA services through containers and lost cargo as well.

Sarhadi added that in October 2023, the Ministry of Commerce through issuing SRO 1380 imposed a ban on 14 items of Afghan transit trade, which in a larger context constitute around 212 items, besides enforcement of a 100% bank guarantee. He said the cargo goods were already covered under insurance guarantee and had been going safely to Afghanistan for the last 13 years. He demanded the revocation of a 100% bank guarantee and the revival of the old insurance guarantee system.

Read Businessmen urge opening of more Pak-Afghan borders

He added that hundreds of trucks are illegally bringing different items including petroleum production, and food items from Iran daily which needed to be stopped. The measures taken for imposition of restriction on Pak-Afghan transit trade are hurting commerce in the region, he opined.

Sarhadi also shared data on Pak-Afghan trade and mentioned a decline in volume during the last several years, a reduction to $1,400 million.

Both the countries, he continued, have set the target of increasing trade volume to $5 billion which in prevailing circumstances looks impossible. APP

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2024.

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