ISLAMABAD-Pakistan on Monday has assured Afghanistan to remove all hindrances in bilateral trade between two countries to increase the volume of trade.
“The government is making all-out efforts to remove all hindrances in trade with Afghanistan,” said Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood while addressing the joint session of Pak-Afghan Transit Trade Coordination Authority (PATTCA) in Islamabad. Joint session of Pak-Afghan Transit Trade Coordination Authority held in Islamabad on Monday and both sides decided Pakistani delegation will visit Kabul to ink Pak-Afghan transit trade agreement. The meeting focus on Pak Afghan Transit Trade and Preferential Trade Agreement.
He said that smuggling of goods under Pak-Afghan Transit Trade would reduce due to the measures taken by the ministry of commerce and Pakistan Customs. “High tariffs also provide an incentive to smuggle. Over the past few months, the ministry of commerce has rationalized tariff on several tariff lines. This, together with the measures taken by the Pakistan Customs, has greatly reduced smuggling as data shows that Imports of smuggling prone goods under ATT fallen considerably during Jul-Nov 2020,” informed Dawood. The Adviser has congratulated the Pakistan Customs and other agencies for their roles in reducing the smuggling.
He said that Pakistan had recently allowed Afghanistan to use Gwadar for their transit trade, which was the demand of the Central Asian States to connect them with Gwadar port. Pakistan has agreed to provide opportunities to Afghanistan trade items through Gwadar and Bin Qasim Ports in a good gesture to enhance the economic ties. He informed that the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between Pakistan and Afghanistan would be finalized by the end of January 2021. Meanwhile, both sides would also finalize the review agreement of APTTA in coming months. He hoped that investment-related matters would be resolved in the recent dialogue. Both the countries would discuss to establish Economic Zones to enhance the bilateral investment and the trade opportunities, he added.
He informed that trade between countries has normalized, which was affected by the COVID-19 and other issues. He hoped that trade volume would increase in the months to come. He said the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Prime Minister Imran Khan were encouraged to increase the bilateral trade and investment relationship between both sides. Razak Dawood said both the countries agreed to keep the shared vision, its commitments, and previous commitments under regular review, to ensure measurable, clear and irreversible steps towards more productive economic and trade relations between them.
Speaking on the occasion, Afghan Commerce Minister said that Afghanistan welcomes the Pakistani investors in the country. He said Afghanistan desires to reach South Asian markets. He said the government of Afghanistan was committed to providing all facilities to Pakistan for increasing the trade and investment opportunities in both sides. He said there was huge potential to enhance the bilateral and transit trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan and in recent years both sides are negotiating the common agenda of peace prosperity and regional harmony.
He said through the World Trade Organization (WTO), Afghanistan wants to export to the South Asian market via Pakistan for connecting the regional economy and trade. He said Afghanistan was ready to connect the regional countries with the Central Asian States and that Pakistan and Afghanistan could play a major role through their geographical location.