This was indicated by Secretary Commerce Younus Dagha while presiding over a meeting on Afghan Pakistan Transit and bilateral relations, which was attended by the officials of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Director General Afghan Transit Trade, Director General Plant Protection, Ministry of Ports and Shipping, Ministry of Finance and National Logistic Cell (NLC), besides representatives of Pak-Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Afghanistan has already taken up the issue of RDs on its products with Pakistani officials. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and FBR supported withdrawal of RDs unilaterally but Commerce Ministry objected to unilateral concession. The Commerce Ministry was also of the view if Pakistan withdraws RD on Afghan products, other countries would also treat as discrimination which is not possible due to WTO.
The meeting discussed different issues to formulate future strategy with respect to Afghan Transit Trade which has been facing ups and downs due to political and security issues between the two countries. The different agencies hurled corruption charges at each other when the issue of authorized charges and unauthorized charges came under heated debate. The issue of RDs on Afghan products and payment mechanism for bilateral trade came under detailed discussion. The four items are raisins, almonds, loosen seeds and licorice roots.
The reasons of decline in bilateral trade were as follows: (i) a decrease in aggregate demand as a result of the withdrawal of Nato forces from Afghanistan; (ii) a worsening law and order situation in Afghanistan; (iii) frequent closure of the Pak-Afghan border and diversion of Afghan trade to Iran; (iv) security threats to Pakistani businessmen; (v) a restrictions on visa and travel; (vi) poor infrastructure at borders; (vii) a drop in international donor funding in Afghanistan for development projects and; (viii) high tariffs by Afghanistan on major Pakistani export products like juices, cement, pharmaceuticals and PVC pipes.
The main issues came under discussion were the review of transit and bilateral situation, latest cost estimates on the movement of transit cargo and progress on previous two meetings held in Islamabad and Karachi.
The meeting pointed out three major irritants which include ports charges, container handling/security charges and customs/ agencies charges. There was consensus on reduction in cost of Afghan transit trade. The meeting decided to get clear the Bill of Carriage of Goods by Sea from the Parliament, Pakistan Land Port Authority, logistic provider, Shipping Rates Advisory Board and TIR. The Commerce Ministry will also move a summary to the ECC to decide payment of demurrage charges of Rs 200 million on containers destined to Afghanistan.
The meeting also decided that a specific liaison office or authority should be established after clubbing all functions of different departments so that all the matters related to transit trade are dealt through one office or agency. All the participants were of the view that a single office or authority should be given the responsibility to deal with transit trade issues.