As part of Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) ongoing Pak-Afghan Trade and Economic Connectivity initiative since 2017 aimed to improve business cooperation, enhance and strengthen the regional economic connectivity, CRSS along with Pakistan Afghanistan Joint Chamber and Commerce (PAJCCI) and Organization for Economic Studies and Peace (OESP) organized a virtual Pak-Afghan stakeholders consultation session on 22nd June,2020.
The idea behind this session was to highlight the current challenges that are impeding the transit as well as bilateral trade amid COVID-19. Furthermore, to bring all the relevant issues of the traders into the notice of Pakistan and Afghan governments, recently appointed Pakistan’s Special Representative to Afghanistan, Mr. Sadiq Khan was invited along with the Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan, Mr. Atif Mashal.
In addition to Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Ambassador Mohammad Sadiq Khan and Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan, Atif Mashal, delegates from Pakistan and Afghanistan included PAJCCI Chairman, Zubair Motiwala; Former President, Karachi Chamber of Commerce, Junaid Makda; Co-Chairman, PAJCCI, Khan Jan Alokozay; Former Afghan Deputy Trade Minister, Mozammil Shinwari; Former Vice Chairman, Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and Vice President, PAJCCI, Haji M. Younas Mohmand; Secretary General, PAJCCI (Pakistan), Faiza Zubair; Executive Director, PAJCCI (Afghanistan), Naqeebullah Safi; CRSS Executive Director Imtiaz Gul and CRSS Program Manager, Junaid Khan.
Speaking to the participants, Mr. Sadiq Khan affirmed that the bilateral relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan should be led by trade diplomacy which will automatically resolve all other issues between the two countries. He further stated that to resolve the issues faced by traders on both sides of the border, both transit and bilateral trades should be addressed separately with distinct mechanisms put in place for their effective resolution. He indicated that at the moment his priority is to address the issues of the Afghan traders in Pakistan. He was optimistic that with the opening of the third border crossing with Afghanistan at Ghulam Khan, Pakistan is rightly moving towards resolving most of the Afghan traders’ concerns in the near future.
Regarding issues faced by the Afghan importers in the transit trade, PAJCCI’s Chairman Zubair Motiwala pointed out that licensing only one private vendor to install the tracking devices to the Afghan transit goods’ containers had significantly slowed down the movement of trucks and led to congestion of the containers at the Karachi port. To resolve this challenge, he proposed the convenient solution of licensing the government-owned National Logistic Cell (NLC) in order to avoid the long administrative procedures of hiring a private tracking company. By doing so, the monopoly that the current tracking company is cashing in on will be addressed as well while more tracking devices will be available to resolve the bottlenecks created at the moment. He further stated that as the season of fresh fruits and vegetables is currently at peak in both countries, the government should proactively expedite the resolution of these issues so as to benefit from these imports and exports. Mr. Sadiq reassured his support to address this concern as soon as possible in order to facilitate the traders.
Speaking on behalf of the Afghan business stakeholders, Former Vice Chairman, Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and VP, PAJCCI, Haji M. Younas Mohmand from Kandahar, expressed his gratitude to both governments on resuming trade. However, he suggested to reduce the tedious process of 100% scanning, adding that the measure was not even a requirement stated in the mutually signed Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA). He further stated that, due to the halted trucks at the Karachi port, the cost of business had significantly increased for the Afghan traders. Like Mr. Motiwala, he also urged the government to opt for the Government-owned tracking company to expedite the process. Mr. Motiwala further pointed out that the APTTA agreement between the two governments was completing its 10 years in the month of July 2020, advocating that this calls for the both governments to be proactive and renew the agreement.
Haji M. Younas Mohmand also proposed that that the Joint Chambers should hold a meeting every month to address the issues of the trader’s communities on both sides. Preferably, Mr. Motiwala suggested, this meeting should be held in Karachi as most of the issues of transit trade can be resolved by the Customs and Port authorities located in Karachi where representatives from Afghanistan and Pakistan government should also be present. He also suggested maintaining a database of all importers which would ease the process of transit for all concerned government departments.
Regarding the bilateral trade, Mr. Motiwala also pointed out that Pakistan’s trade volume with Afghanistan had dropped to US $1.7 billion from US $2.7 billion, which was very unfortunate. Furthermore, he impressed upon Ambassador Sadiq that as Pakistan is also facing enormous challenges in transit trade via Afghanistan to Central Asian States via Afghanistan, following the resolution of Afghan transit trade issues, Pakistan’s transit issues also need to be addressed which is also essential.
Co-Chairman, PAJCCI, Khan Jan Alokozay also seconded the separation of bilateral and transit trade while addressing these issues, stressing that the trade volume between the two countries had indeed dropped significantly and needed to be boosted.
Mr. Sadiq in his concluding remarks, reiterated that all relevant concerns are already shared with government representatives in a high-level meeting held followed by the opening of the third crossing point with Afghanistan. He was certain that the issues would be resolved in everyone’s best interests soon. Particularly, on the issue of the tracking company, the government would be making a suitable decision in the interest of the traders, he assured. He accepted the suggestion of the traders to visit Karachi to meet with government and business stakeholders and monitor the transit trade process in person in the near future.
