Discussions between Islamabad and Kabul are underway for preferential tradeagreement (PTA) and trade under Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit TradeAgreement (APTTA) with a focus on bringing back the share of trade toPakistan, which was lost to Iran and India, a national daily reported onMonday.
Speaking to a media outlet, Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce, Textileand Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood said,
In the wake of incompetence in decision-making, irrational and faultypolicies on behalf of Pakistan in the past, Kabul diversified its importregime and abandoned the reliance on imports from Pakistan, which is why 50percent country’s export share glided to Iran and India.——————————
In 2010-11, Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan stood at $2.6 billion, whichreduced by half to $1.3 billion in 2018. During July-October 2020, theexports to Afghanistan stood at $344 million, which showed an increase of15.6 percent year over year, compared to the exports of $287 million in thesame period in 2019.
The adviser further added, “he was confident that Pakistan will win backthe lost share in Afghanistan’s market as for Kabul to import from Pakistanis the most economical.”
Pakistan held two-day talks with Afghanistan, in Kabul, on November 16-18with a focus on the finalization of the draft for APTTA, signing of PTA,free movements of goods in both countries, as well as trade issues relatedto port, customs, and banking.
During the recent discussions, Afghanistan asked Pakistan to allow Indiangoods to pass through the Wagha border. However, Pakistan refused on thegrounds that these talks were meant to discuss the trade details betweenPakistan and Afghanistan and not regarding other countries.
Pakistan also informed Afghanistan of the tension between Pakistan andIndia stemming out of the Kashmir issue, which is another reason thatPakistan will not be open to this demand. “Then Kabul side took back itsdemand and talks went smoothly on PTA and APTTA,” the adviser informed.
Once the preferential trade agreement is signed, Pakistan will be able tobounce back to the export level of $2.6 billion and eventually boost itfurther to $5 billion in the next five years, Mr. Razak remarked.Furthermore, he added that the same agreement will also be useful informalizing and documenting the major chunk of informal trade that iscurrently taking place between Pakistan and Afghanistan.