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WEEKLY
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| Redrafting of Afghan Transit Trade Agreement |
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NWFP businessmen want concerns addressed
Thursday, November 05, 2009
By Riaz Khan Daudzai
PESHAWAR: Economic experts have asked the US State Department and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to prevail on the Afghan government to address their concerns while redrafting the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA) before its finalization by December 13 this year.
Conveying the demand to the US, a group of economic experts apprised US authorities of the negative impact on Pakistan’s economy of ATTA, which would later be called the Afghan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTA).
They had also taken up matters related to ATTA and the proposed Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZs) with Hillary Clinton during her three-day visit to Pakistan in late October.
They sought preferential treatment for Pakistani goods from Afghanistan under the Transit Trade Agreement.
Economic experts from Pakistan recently went to the US on a three-week visit on the invitation of the State Department to hold talks on redrafting the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement, said Nauman Wazir, an industrialist from NWFP who was also a part of the delegation.
The delegation included an official of the Economic Affairs Division, an official of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and a businessman from the private sector, Nauman Wazir. Three officials of the Afghan government were also part of the delegation.
The delegation held talks with US State Department officials, members of different US trade bodies, Pak-America Chamber of Commerce and representatives of the SME sector.
“The Pakistani team demanded reciprocal facilities from Afghanistan for trade with Central Asian countries, which if started, will restore the past glory of Peshawar as a gateway to Central Asia,” he added.
Nauman Wazir, who is also the Chairman of Pakistan Hunting and Sporting Arms Development Company (PHSADC), said US officials were informed that because of disparity in customs duties and Import Tariff Price (ITP) between Pakistan and Afghanistan, a majority of the goods imported under ATTA are smuggled back to Pakistan, inflicting a loss of billions of rupees due to non-payment of import duty.
He said Afghanistan was annually earning $800 million as customs duty on goods imported under ATTA, which are in fact imported for smuggling back to Pakistan.
“The practice causes a loss of $3 billion to Pakistan every year,” he said, adding that Afghanistan surprisingly imported eight times more black tea than Pakistan in 2008-09, though Afghans take only green tea.
“Right-hand-drive cars, beetle nuts, cardamom and spices are imported through ATTA, but none of these items are used in Afghanistan,” he said.
The Afghan government is not providing reciprocal facilities to the businessmen of Pakistan exporting or importing goods to and from Central Asian countries and “we also suggested some amendments to the ATTA aimed at ensuring facilities to the businessmen trading with Central Asian countries, which our government provides to Afghan traders.”
Referring to their meeting with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Islamabad on October 30, Nauman said the US official was informed about the difficulties pertaining to ATTA faced by traders.
However, the US foreign secretary said they are just the facilitators between Afghanistan and Pakistan on the ATTA, which will be finalized on December 31, Nauman said.
He added that Hillary told businessmen that projects were launched under ROZs in Fata. But the businessmen informed her that no such thing was visible in the tribal areas.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
