The Ministry of Commerce briefed the Committee on the history of AfghanPakistan Trade and revision of the Afghan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement(APTTA) 2010.
The Committee discussed in detail the challenges & issues in transit tradewith Afghanistan, lessons learnt from past agreements, proposals of boththe countries and way forward.
The Committee was informed that Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) is obligatorytransport of cargo from/to Pakistan ports to Afghanistan under Article V ofGATT 1947, Convention on Transit Trade of land-locked States 1965, UnitedNations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982.
The Agreement was concluded keeping in view the best internationalpractices and advances made in the fields of information technology,logistics and customs procedures.
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The Committee was informed that as opposed to the previous agreement,Afghan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement is based on complete reciprocity,access to Pakistani exports to the CARs region through Afghanistan andformal arrangement in form of the Afghanistan Pakistan Transit TradeCoordination Authority (APTTCA) to ensure effective implementation.
The Ministry informed the Committee that despite repeated requests Afghanside has not been forthcoming in holding of APTTCA meeting and the lastmeeting was held in February 2016. They further added that the Afghan sidehas shared proposals for the revision of APTTA in June, 2020.
