Businessmen representative wants Afghan-Pakistan Transit Trade Accord reviewed

PESHAWAR: Senior Vice-President of Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ziaul Haq Sarhadi has called for a review of the new Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement. In a statement on Friday, the businessmen community representative, who is also president of the Frontier Customs Agents Group, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, held the bureaucracy of both the countries responsible for the difficulties faced by businessmen due to the new trade agreement.

He feared the transit trade between both the neighbouring countries would come to a halt if the two governments did not go for immediate review of the agreement and took steps to redress the difficulties emerging in the wake of the agreement. Sarhadi, who is also vice-chairman of the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Standing Committee on Customs Agents and All Pakistan Customs Agents Association, stressed the need for a comprehensive policy for taking benefits of the big Afghan market and growing markets of the Central Asian Republics. He said problems in the trade agreements were resulting in the decline of exports to Afghanistan. Sarhadi said during the last six years, the transit trade business has been almost shifted to Chabahar and Bandar Abbas ports of Iran, which has downed the volume of bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan from $2.5billion to $ 1.5 billion while both countries are making efforts to take it to $5 billion. The trade community representative said the beginning of the Indian trade with Afghanistan through Pakistan would create problems for the latter as Afghan authorities are considering Pakistan and India as two big markets. He said despite the announcement of the tripartite agreement by the federal government amongst Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, it could not be signed yet. He said other Central Asian States should also be included in these agreements to promote trade.