Afghan trucks are not allowed to go beyond Peshawar despite a transit agreement with Pakistan. Esmatullah Mayar investigates.
Under the Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement
Under the Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA), signed by the two countries on July 18, 2010, Afghanistan can transport goods in its own trucks to Wagha – a dry port between Pakistan and India – and to Gwadar, the deep-sea port 500km west of Karachi.
But the head of the Afghanistan Transportation Association Abbas Ayeen told Killid that Pakistan has not implemented its part of deal. Instead it has insisted Afghan transporters keep insurance and other promises.
Deputy Commerce and Industries Minister Muzamil Shinwarai agrees trade relations between the two countries are uneven. Afghanistan has a 2 billion USD trade via Pakistan while the latter exports only 100 million USD through Afghanistan. As a result the Kabul government cannot implement all the conditions, including bank accounts for traders, the deputy minister told Killid in an exclusive interview.
Muzamil claims Afghan traders are facing fewer problems under the Nawaz Sharif government.
However, the Transportation Association’s Ayeen has a different view. While consignments bound for Afghanistan are brought by rail from Karachi port to Peshawar, and loaded on to Afghan trucks, he says Pakistani trucks bound for the northern border enter the country through Torkham, Chaman and Khost.
And last year the Afghan government succumbed to pressure from Islamabad and withdrew a tit-for-tat action on insurance and other guarantees.
Khan Jan Alokozai, deputy chairman of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce & Industries has not seen any softening of Pakistan’s position. The Chamber says Pakistan has not solved even the most basic problems faced by Afghan traders.
Alokozai dismisses Deputy Commerce Minister Shinwarai’s statement that Afghanistan has a 2 billon USD transit trade with Pakistan. He says Afghan traders have boycotted Pakistan. “We don’t have trade via Karachi port, (and) if there is it is very scanty. Now we focus on other ports like Iran’s Abas and Chah Bahar ports, and ports to central Asia,” he adds.
Alokozai says the boycott by Afghan traders has hurt Pakistan – there is a loss of 3 million USD in income from the Afghan transit trade for Pakistan. The boycott will not be lifted unless Islamabad keeps promises made in APTTA.
Ministry of Finance figures show that about 1,000 trucks enter the country – 60 percent of them via dry ports on the border with Pakistan. Abdul Qader Jailani, the spokesperson for the ministry says a third of the trucks include NATO supported convoys and the rest are for Afghan traders.
The Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PAJCCI) monitors the volume of trade. A recent business perception survey report shows a decline in total trade between the two countries. Also the PAJCCI report confirms Afghan transit trade through Pakistan has declined mostly because of security bottlenecks and under the table costs and “unnecessary delays” by Pakistani customs. Afghan traders have shifted the transit trade to Iran despite the higher official costs and number of days to process cargo.
Call for review
The Chamber of Commerce & Industries says there are flaws in the transit agreement with Pakistan, and these have created problems for traders in both countries.
Mohammad Hashem Rasouli, public relations director at the Chamber, says APTTA has not considered the primitive conditions in the country. The agreement insists on GPS tracking of trucks or containers, but neither trucks nor roads in the country are equipped with the system.
Moreover goods have to be insured. “Unfortunately insurance has not developed properly in Afghanistan and the condition is not practical,” says Rasouli. Pakistani transporters have similar problems, he adds. “That is the reason that I say the agreement is beyond the level of Pakistan also,” according to Rasouli.
Rasouli suggests APTTA be reviewed keeping in mind the situation on the ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “While some issues were solved through negotiations but that has been only on paper,” he says. “It is better that the agreement should be reviewed,” he adds.
However, the Ministry of Commerce thinks the problem is not with the agreement but political. Deputy Commerce Minister Shinwarai told Killid: “APTTA is an agreement that doesn’t have any precedent. It is a first for Afghanistan. The reason why Afghanistan has not got benefits is that Pakistan creates problems in its political interests.”
Pakistan Finance Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar who was in Kabul to attend the 9th Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting on Feb 23 said, “We are all committed to put in practice the agreement soon.” According to him the concerned officials were working to implement the agreement. “This is a joint problem that can be solved through joint coordination and cooperation,” he asserted.
Unless Pakistan resolves the problem there will be criticism. Engineer Sher Wali Wardak, a member of the parliamentary economics committee called APTTA a “useful agreement” but qualified it by adding, “unfortunately Pakistan doesn’t stand on its promises”.
Wardak believes Pakistan is “double-faced” and does not enforce what it has agreed to. He thinks it is unfortunate that there is no regulatory mechanism that can monitor the agreement and penalise violations.
