The country's business community has urged the government not to compromise on Pakistan's interests while implementing Pak-Afghan transit trade agreement. In a statement, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Mian Shaukat Masud on Friday expressed the hope that the transit trade agreement would be instrumental to promotion of healthy relations between the two neighbouring countries.
"The government should ensure that the agreement become does not problematic for Pakistan due to penetration of smuggled Indian goods into Pakistani markets," he added. He said the business community wanted good relations with all neighbouring countries, including India and Afghanistan, as this would create new opportunities of betterment and prosperity for the economies and people of these countries.
However, he cautioned that this agreement should ensure prevention of smuggled goods into Pakistan, particularly transported via Wagha-Khyber transit route so that our domestic industry might not suffer and people might not lose jobs. Mian Shaukat Masud said Pakistan had already suffered due to Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) agreement as the goods brought to Afghanistan under the ATT played havoc with the domestic industries.
He said that despite the availability of all kinds of goods, even viable industrial units in Pakistan failed to compete with the duty-free goods smuggled back into Pakistan from Afghanistan. The ICCI President said only those goods should be allowed for transit through Wagha-Khyber route, which were essentially needed in Afghanistan.
He said: "Our industrialists pay all kinds of taxes on the goods manufactured in the country, while our markets are flooded with smuggled goods, which badly affect the competitiveness of locally manufactured goods." He said that to avoid the repetition of such problems, the government and the international community should guarantee that the goods transported through Wagha-Khyber route to Afghanistan would not get back in Pakistani markets to save local industry from further destruction.