Lacunae seen in Pak-Afghan trade agreement

PESHAWAR: A group of businessmen representatives has pointed out several lacunae in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) 2010 and asked the government to address the issue.

The matter was discussed at a meeting of the stakeholders with the Director of Transit Trade, Arbab Qaiser at the directorate. The measures for streamlining trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan along with Central Asian Republics (CARs) were deliberated.

President of Frontier Customs Agents Association (FCAA), Zia-ul-Haq Sharhadi, headed the delegation, said a press release issued here on Sunday. Present there were Additional Director Dr. Wajid Ali, Deputy Director Transit Torkham, Maliaka Ahmad, Vice-President Frontier Custom Agents Association, Imtiaz Ahmad Ali, Central Chairman All Pakistan Customs Agents Association, Farooq Ahmad, Engr Manzoor Elahi and others.

Sarhadi said due to the lacunae in APTTA 2010 70 percent of transit trade had been shifted from Karachi port to Bandar Abbas in Iran. He suggested the revival of Goods in Transit to Afghanistan (GITA) service through a loose cargo via train between Peshawar to Karachi and from Karachi to Chaman. For this purpose, he proposed that SRO 121 should be repealed for allowing GITA services through containers and lost cargo as well.

Sarhadi said documentation of all this cargo under GITA should be held under WeBOC at Azhakhel Dryport so that Customs clearing and forwarding agents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should benefit from this trade. He said 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 constituted around 212 items, besides enforcement of a 100 percent bank guarantee.

Sarhadi said the cargo goods were already covered under insurance guarantee and all the goods had been going safely to Afghanistan for the last 13 years. He demanded the revoking 100 percent bank guarantee and the revival of the old insurance guarantee system.

Similarly, he suggested, that instead of the imposition of a ban on transit trade items, attention should be given to improving monitoring and vigilance on the border to curb smuggling. He said the measures taken for restricting the Pak-Afghan transit trade were having a negative impact on commerce in the region.

Sarhadi pointed out that during the recent visit of the Pakistan delegation to Kabul early in March, this year, several issues were discussed but no action had been initiated on that. The director of Transit Trade held out assurance of considering the points raised by the business community and said decisions would be taken after consulting them.