President Fede-ration of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI), Sultan Ahmed Chawla expressed his concern on trade agreement with Afghanistan and has reservations on the MoU to be signed on transit trade with Afghanistan. The modalities in this regard should be set deliberately after comprehensive negotiation and deliberation of all stake holders including FPCCI, apex bodies and representatives of business councils for mutual interest of both the countries.
He highlighted that there are 33 land locked countries in the world and they have been facilitated by their neighbouring countries. The requirements of imported goods are quantified on the basis of requirements. Hence excess goods are dumped into Pakistan. It promotes smuggling and makes huge loss to national exchequer. He urged that Pakistani goods should be given access into the markets of the central Asian states, but Afghan government had imposed 18 percent import duty on the Pakistani goods whereas there was no import duty on the Indian items.
This agreement will allow India to use transit through Wagha-Khyber route for trade with Afghanistan. If India is given access to Afghanistan through Wagah their goods will enter Pakistani markets through smuggling. Besides this India will get easy access to central Asian states through Afghanistan whereas Pakistan is presently denied this facility through transit trade agreement (TTA) with Afghanistan.-PR
Comments
Comments are closed.