a bone of contention as Kabul authorities demanded access of trucks up to India through the Wagah border. The Pakistani side argued that they signed the trilateral transit agreement with the understanding that they would not allow access up to India through the Wagah border.
The JEC minutes state that the Pakistani side asked Kabul to identify the place for establishing the Free Economic Zone which would be established in which would be established in Afghanistan. The Afghan authorities replied that the site identified for the Free Economic Zone had unfortunately fallen into the hands of the Taliban so the next site would be identified before holding of joint business forum before March 2016 at Kabul.
Pakistan desires inclusion of Tajikistan in the APTTA plus after lapse of this existing agreement but Afghanistan seemed reluctant. In the wake of signing the APTTA between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the last five years, the commercial trade (transit and bilateral trade) and non-commercial (Nato related trade) showed fluctuating trends as in the fiscal year 2009-10 the total trade stood at $3.332 billion with the share of commercial trade of $2.157 billion and non-commercial trade $1.165 billion.
In the fiscal year 2010-11, the commercial trade stood at $1.871 billion and non-commercial trade just at $11.65 million. The commercial trade stood at $1.256 billion in 2011-12 and non-commercial trade $525 million, $1.319 billion commercial trade and non-commercial $564 million in 2012-13 and $2.202 billion commercial trade and $688 million non-commercial trade in 2013-14.
“The number of containers are reducing during the current fiscal year but in terms of value the trade between the two countries is increasing and will be standing at over $2 billion during the current fiscal year,” one of the top official sources confirmed to The News on Wednesday.
Both sides are working on the prospects of export-led investment flows from Pakistan to Afghanistan and the volume of bilateral trade will be doubled in the next two years.