On 25 June, 2018, both the PAJC groups held a meeting with Afghan business leaders, headed by Mr. Khan Jan Alokozai, Co-President Pakistan Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PAJCCI) and also Deputy head of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI). Mr. Yunus Momand, Vice President PAJCCI Afghanistan, Dr. Mohammad Yusuf Khan, Trade Minister Pakistan Embassy, and other Afghan leading businessmen also attended the meeting.
Talking to the two delegations, Mr. Alokozai said that both Afghanistan and Pakistan have lately shown positivity in different arenas of cooperation.
He further said that Pakistan and Afghanistan are engaged in three key areas regarding trade/business. First is transit trade, second is bilateral trade, and the third is investment (also include Foreign Direct Investment [FDI]). Both countries have their respective issues in all the above mentioned domains.
He said “decline in domestic trade was observed between the two neighbors recently, due to numerous differences. Pakistani PM Abbasi’s recent visit to Kabul enabled the environment for mutual cooperation, following which Afghan President Ashraf Ghani sent a high-powered delegation to Islamabad, which held wide-ranging talks with Pakistani officials. As a result of these meetings, 80% of the issues related to Pak-Afghan trade have been resolved amicably”.
The issues included the quarantine certification, imposition of new regulatory duty, delay in transportation, problems in customs evaluation, longer clearance time at the ports, high demurrage charges, and issues related to transit guarantees in Pakistan, he elaborated.
Giving further examples of improvement, he told the delegates that Pakistani trucks were not allowed to go beyond Torkham and Chaman; now the trucks are unrestrainedly allowed to go till Jalalabad or Kandahar etc. Those trucks which would not off-load can go up to Kabul or even up till the other side of the Afghan frontier. Pakistan also had a concern about impediments in having access to Central Asia through Afghanistan for which guarantee was required; the terms of guarantee have been eased presently.
He concluded his remarks by noting that committees have also been set-up within the formulated working groups between Pakistan and Afghanistan and have been operationalized; trade & economic working group will through these committees address bilateral and transit trade issues. Any issue faced by (border) Customs will be taken up within these committees and will be resolved at the earliest. These committees had a meeting in Ramadan (the holy month of fasting in Islam) and will hold monthly meetings from now on, to resolve the customs related issues.
Pakistani and Afghan delegation members thanked Mr. Alokozai for meeting with them and briefing them on the latest trade related issues, and held frank and open exchange of views with him and other business leaders present at the meeting. The meeting was followed by a working lunch.
