Afghan trade: New transit trade pact comes into effect today

[EjazR]

Afghan trade: New transit trade pact comes into effect today – The Express Tribune

ISLAMABAD: The Afghanistan-Pakistan transit trade agreement will come into effect today (January 1), allowing India-bound Afghan cargo trucks to enter Pakistan via the border post at Torkham on their way to Wagah.

The new deal will allow Afghan goods to pass through Pakistan in sealed containers, secured by tracking devices. The containers will be re-examined and certified before leaving the border at Torkham.

Both countries have also agreed to share customs information to tackle the incidence of unauthorised trade.

The trade agreement, prepared after several rounds of talks between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States and allaying reservations expressed by the ministry of defence and other stakeholders, requires Afghan traders to furnish a bank guarantee to the tune of customs duty essential to check smuggling or misuse of the facility.

Authorised brokers or clearing agents will also be required to deposit financial guarantees equivalent to import levies in Pakistan: the amount will be released after the goods exit the country.

If the goods do not leave the country within a specified time, the guarantees will be confiscated by the customs authorities.

Afghan trucks will be allowed to carry Afghan transit export cargo on designated routes to Pakistani ports and also up to the Indian border where Afghan cargo will be transferred to Indian trucks.

This deal will, for the first time, provide an opportunity for Afghan fruit, dry fruit, carpet and marble producers to market their products in India.

It was also agreed that at this stage, no Indian exports to Afghanistan will be allowed via Wagah. This, however, “could be discussed at an appropriate time in the future”.

For this purpose, “Pakistan will provide a side letter to Afghanistan giving this Understanding”.

Till December 31, 2010, Afghan transit goods in Pakistan were transferred under a transit trade agreement signed by the two countries in 1965.

Under the agreement, five transit routes are available for transit trade from Pakistan: These are: Peshawar-Torkham and vice-versa, Chaman-Spin Boldak and vice versa, Ghulam Khan Killi, Port Qasim and Karachi ports.

Sheds and open spaces are reserved at the Karachi port known for handling Afghan transit goods.

Under the previous agreement, Afghan goods transiting through Karachi port are exempt from Pakistani duties or customs tariffs.

 

[muse]

A genuinely dangerous agreement - The PPP government has many failings, but it's failings with regard to national security are unpardonable.

 

[somebozo]

If the Afghans want to infiltrate weapons which they will do anyway then bank guarantees and tracking devices matter nothing.!

 

[muse]

In the same way the US send arms to PKK, the US is making preparations to use the Afghan customs to promote their designs against Pakistan and China:

US to bolster Afghan border, customs training


* Karzai says Afghans will be able to assume responsibility for security by 2014

KABUL: The US will send more American experts to train Afghan police and customs officials to better manage the country’s porous border crossings, US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Saturday, noting that such training was critical to prepare for the eventual exit of foreign troops.

Napolitano met with President Hamid Karzai and Afghanistan’s finance minister and also planned on meeting with the interior minister before leaving for Qatar later in the weekend.

Karzai’s office said in a statement that during their talks, Napolitano said the United States would help Afghanistan with equipment and capacity building for the country’s customs operations and with the training of border police.

Karzai told the visiting secretary that the Afghan side was trying to strengthen its capacity and that the country would be able to assume responsibility for security in four years’ time, when international combat troops are expected to hand over to Afghan security forces.

It will be difficult, however, to train enough Afghan border police and agents to control the porous border with Pakistan.

Thousands of US-led troops have been unable to stop Taliban fighters and extremists from crossing the rugged frontier to fight NATO forces. Opium is also smuggled out of the country yearly.

What they can do is try and train customs agents to better collect import taxes for government coffers, although in some parts of the country much of that revenue is lost to corruption. For the past year, Napolitano’s department has been working with the Afghan government establish a border security and customs system and crack down on the smuggling of drugs and cash.

Napolitano said 52 former US customs and border patrol officers would arrive in Afghanistan in 2011. The Homeland Security department currently has 25 agents on the ground, up from 11 a year ago. Halting the flow of billions of dollars of cash from Afghanistan is a top US priority. ap

 

[BATMAN]

Goods from Pakistan come in to Pakistan in guise of Afghan transit trade but officialising it free of cost is a theft.

Now NHA will take more loan from IMF to build the roads and both Indians and IMF will be laughing at us for such stupidity.

Afghani border guards tear off all the id papers which Pakistan officials prepare for the paper less immigrants from Afghanistan.... what sort of training from US will help any cause than?

 

[Ghareeb_Da_Baal]

The signed copy of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) is under lock and key to avoid opposition to some provisions likely to be misinterpreted as being detrimental to the national interest.
“The government decided that the agreement would be kept confidential for which special instructions were issued by the commerce minister,” said an official requesting anonymity. Kabul was therefore selected as the venue for signing the APTTA on October 28, this year, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Both countries reached the understanding that Afghan trucks would be allowed to carry Indian goods to Afghanistan on their return from Wagah after delivering Afghan cargo, ostensibly the reason for keeping the agreement a secret.
Officials believe that this could be misinterpreted as being a veiled insertion which Pakistan would be obliged to honour in the near future. “It was also agreed that no Indian export to Afghanistan will be allowed through Wagah at this stage,’’ according to the APTTA. However, it was decided that ‘a feasible proposal in this regard could be discussed in the future’.
To make transportation economical, Afghan trucks will be allowed to carry goods from Pakistan to Afghanistan.
Another part of the agreement that forced the government to avoid making the document public was that no part of the accord refers to Kabul reciprocating the gesture by permitting Pakistan to export its goods to Central Asia via Afghanistan.
Pakistani goods make their way to Central Asia through Afghanistan without a formal agreement.
Pakistan and Afghanistan had finalised the agreement on July 19 in the presence of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The move invited a public outburst and critics said it was dictated by the US to benefit India.Various trade and transport bodies had also raised objections to the agreement, fearing competition from Afghan truckers.
According to the APTTA, Afghan trucks will be allowed to carry Afghan transit export cargo to Pakistani seaports and to the border at Wagah.
Sponsored by the United States, Presidents Asif Ali Zardari and Hamid Karzai signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the Afghan transit trade in Washington on May 13 last year to allow India to use Pakistani soil for trade with Afghanistan.The two presidents were to seal the agreement before Dec 31, 2009, allowing Afghanistan-Pakistan-India to trade overland. But the question of allowing the land transit facility to India evoked a strong reaction in Pakistan resulting in the deadline being missed.
The federal cabinet in its meeting approved the APTTA in the first week of October. An announcement revealing certain clauses of the new agreement had specified that Afghan trucks will be allowed to carry goods to the Wagah border, but they will not be allowed to carry Indian goods to Afghanistan. In return, Pakistani trucks will be allowed to go through Afghanistan to Central Asia, Iran and Turkey.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 31st, 2010.

 

[ajtr]

The signed copy of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) is under lock and key to avoid opposition to some provisions likely to be misinterpreted as being detrimental to the national interest.

There can be reason for PPP govt keeping APTTA under lock due to the reason pak govt might have agreed to 2 way transit for afghanistan and indian goods.

 

[graphican]

I'm sure the moment this Govt. is toppled such agreements will be terminated for good.

 

[GMSS]

good n awesome job by pak govt

 

[Farooq]

A genuinely dangerous agreement - The PPP government has many failings, but it's failings with regard to national security are unpardonable.

Secularism zindabaad!