MoC giving final touches to APTTA

Ministry of Commerce (MoC) is said to be giving final touches to the much criticised Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) by incorporating the notes signed by Commerce Ministers of both the countries, well-informed sources told Business Recorder.
Commerce Ministry on Tuesday night issued a clarification to remove what it termed were misconceptions about the recently tailored agreement (record notes) after a countrywide outrage by the business community, one of the key stakeholders.
Although the clarification has been issued in the Commerce Minister's name, insiders claim the article was not even shown to him. The article claimed that the private sector was on board; however a survey carried out by this correspondent revealed that the private sector's contention is that it was not on board hours before the minutes were finalised.
The record notes reveal that the meeting on APTTA was held between the Afghan Finance Minister Dr Omar Zakhilwal, who reached Islamabad on Saturday evening, a day prior to the signing, Dr Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady, Afghan Commerce Minister, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, senior Commerce Minister and Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Finance Minister on July 17, 2010. The meeting was held in a spirit of co-operation and understanding. The two sides stated their positions and agreed to resolve the issues, which could not be settled during the meeting of Joint Working Group (JWG) held on 16-17 July, 2010.
Some Commerce Ministry officials claim that the country's top offices like the Presidency, Prime Minister House, GHQ and ISI were on board before fine-tuning the record notes. However, the private sector which is also one of the major stakeholders in the pact was sidelined at the time of finalisation of the agreement.
"Pakistani negotiators have compromised the interests of domestic industry in APTTA," said one of the private sector stakeholders. According to him, till the evening of July 17, 2010 "things were not moving" as per expectations and resistance was shown by experts of both sides on outstanding issues like smuggling and transit facility to Indian goods for Afghanistan. The presence of US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton in Islamabad was also one of the key reasons for signing the hurriedly finalised record notes.
According to well-informed sources the Islamabad-based US officials visited the Commerce Ministry several times to discuss developments on APTTA. At present MoC is incorporating the record notes in the proposed APTTA which will subsequently be sent to Ministry of Law and Justice for vetting and federal cabinet for approval.
After this exercise, the APTTA will be signed; the venue and the names of the proposed signatories are not yet known. Pakistan will facilitate Afghan exports to India through Wahgah and Afghan trucks will be allowed access on designated routes up to Wahgah. Afghan cargo will be off-loaded on the Indian trucks back-to-back at Wahgah. No Indian exports to Afghanistan will be allowed through Wahgah at this stage.
However, feasible proposals in this regard could be discussed at an appropriate time in future (no time limit has been given for this purpose). Pakistan will provide a side letter to Afghanistan giving this undertaking. This side letter shall not be part of the APTTA.
According to the documents, Afghan trucks will be allowed to carry Afghan transit export cargo on designated routes to Pakistani sea ports and to Wahgah. There are indications that for the first time in history, Pakistan has agreed to allow Indian trucks to enter into Pakistani territory to load Afghan goods.
All Afghan transit goods shall be transported in: (a) containers of international specification; (b) for a period of one year the cargo shall be allowed on immediately acceptable and verifiable standard of sealable trucks;(c) oversize and bulk cargo (not imported in containers like ship load), shall be transported in open trucks or other transport units and; (d) exports of perishable goods in transit (like fruit and vegetable etc) shall be transported in open trucks or other transport units.
With regard to visa issues, both countries have decided that the drivers and cleaners shall be allowed to cross border on permits, identified by the biometric device installed at the entry points that will be established by the two countries. In case of failure to agree on a common name of third arbitrator, two names of non-nationals and non-residents shall be proposed by each side. The third arbitrator shall be selected by drawing lots from the four proposed names.
According to APTTA the following measures shall be adopted to tackle the issue of unauthorised flow back (smuggling) to Pakistan: (a) installing tracking device on transport units; (b) customs to customs information sharing (IT data and others); (c) provide encashable financial guarantees through authorised brokers on Afghan transit goods for an amount equivalent to the import levies of Pakistan which shall be released after the goods cross the border; and (d) any other measure to be taken by Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Co-ordination Authority (APTCA).