ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister's Advisor on Commerce and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood will visit Afghanistan next month to discuss proposed initial draft of Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) and bilateral trade agreement.
He shared this information with the National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce which held its meeting on Monday to discuss bottlenecks in smooth implementation of APTTA between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"I have told Prime Minister Imran Khan at a high level meeting that trade with Afghanistan is in the interest of Pakistan and he agreed. I am visiting Kabul next month where I will share Pakistan's draft," he said, adding that when both sides would sit across the table then give and take would take place.
A high-level Afghan delegation comprising officials and businessmen were undertaking a two-day official visit starting from October 26. The delegation will hold meetings with Pakistani side to find out avenues to strengthen bilateral trade relations and remove hurdles in transit and bilateral trade.
Chairman Standing Committee, Syed Naveed Qamar, argued that Pakistan should not give importance to petty issues, which hurt trade relations between the two neighbouring countries adding that this was the third consecutive meeting on APTTA and now "members are not showing any enthusiasm". Qamar emphasized that the next agreement must be comprehensive and Pakistani exporters needed to be facilitated on priority.
He said if the government did not want trade with Afghanistan, then it should clearly convey that to the committee, offering to hold in-camera meeting to sort out things.
At this the Commerce Advisor pointed out that the recommendations of Naveed Qamar led national assembly committee were different from the Senate Committee, adding if the Ministry considered an in-camera meeting was appropriate it would convey it to the committee.
Secretary Commerce, Sualeh Ahmad Faruqi said there was a need to focus on Pak Afghan trade. He said talks with Afghanistan would be on APTTA and Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA), both sides had exchanged notes and all the stakeholders were in favour of a comprehensive agreement.
"Pakistan has done its part of assignment and comprehensive agenda will be sent to Afghanistan," he continued. Joint Chambers of both countries have also met to discuss issues hindering transit and bilateral trade.
The Secretary Commerce said Pakistan's national interests would be safeguarded in APTTA and bilateral trade agreement.
Member Customs, Dr Tariq Huda informed the committee that Pakistan's key issue was smuggling of transit items into its territory.
"Afghanistan has issues like cost of doing business, demurrages and delay in clearance of consignments whereas Pakistan wants Afghanistan to import things as per its requirements," he added.
Pakistan has taken a number of facilitation measures in this regard, but smuggling is still going on. However, now Afghani businessmen are ready to pay duty to re-export those items which were imported without need.
In a written brief, FBR said the smuggling mafia uses unfrequented routes located far from the notified legal routes where Pakistan Customs have no, or very thin presence.
Aslam Bhootani, a committee member urged the government to make Gwadar Port functional so that the people of the area could benefit from the project. He also raised concern on fencing of border areas by National Logistic Cell (NLC) which was the crossing point of Baloch people. He said, whenever the name of NLC was mentioned it was considered synonymous with Pakistan Army and people felt afraid. At this Abdul Razak Dawood nodded his head in agreement.
Mian Shafiq supported the views of Aslam Bhootani on NLC and suggested the NLC officials should be invited to the next meeting of the committee so that they could share their views on the terminal.
Member Customs Dr Tariq Huda informed the committee that NLC was establishing its terminal in the area and suggested that the provincial government should also set up its terminal which would increase its income, in addition to providing jobs for the people.
According to an official statement, the Committee further discussed the institutional arrangements, challenges & issues in transit trade with Afghanistan. The committee was informed that Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Coordination Authority (APTTCA) was established to monitor the effective implementation of the agreement. The Ministry further added that one of the discouraging factors in Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade was high terminal charges at Pakistani ports in terms of handling, storage charges.
The major reasons for high port charges in Pakistan are attributed to non-competitive environment, non-utilization of Gwadar port and lack of regulatory mechanism to regulate terminal operators and shipping lines. The Ministry informed that lack of harmonization of customs documents is another issue which hinders the timely completion of transit formalities. The Ministry is addressing issues like permits, delays in clearance of goods, difficulty in registration of goods documents, insufficient space for clearance and handling of goods, its delays and other related issues.
The meeting was attended by Muhammad Yaqoob Shaikh MNA, Muhammad Aslam Bhootani MNA, Mian Muhammad Shafiq MNA, Usman Ibrahim MNA and Tahira Aurangzeb, MNA. The meeting was also attended by the Advisor to the Prime Minister for Commerce, Secretary Commerce and other representatives from the Ministry of Commerce and FBR.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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