ISLAMABAD: Advisor to the Prime Minister on Trade and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood has urged exporters to send their proposals on the proposed Pakistan-Afghanistan Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA).
“Chaired the first consultative session with the stakeholders on proposed Pakistan-Afghanistan PTA at the MOC. Valuable inputs were provided by various stakeholders,” said Dawood in a series of tweets.
“This will now be followed by sector-specific meetings so that Pakistan’s Request List for the PTA can be finalised for discussions with Afghanistan which are expected to take place at around the middle of next month. I request all exporters to send their proposals to MOC at the earliest. Bilateral trade with Afghanistan has to be placed on a sustainable growth path,” he added.
It may be recalled that Dawood was part of the prime minister’s entourage for an inter-ministerial delegation that went to Afghanistan for talks on the Pak-Afghan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) and possibilities of a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between the two countries.
Earlier it was informed that following the prime minister’s visit to Kabul, the Ministry of Commerce would start engaging all stakeholders on items to be placed on the proposed Pak-Afghan PTA, starting next week.
The commerce adviser had earlier said that PTA between two countries would be finalised by the end of January 2021, while he had also expressed hopes that Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) would also be signed around the same time.
The 7th Meeting of the Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Cooperation Authority (APTTCA) was held in Kabul after a break of more than four years.
During the official talks, extensive and fruitful deliberations were held on the whole spectrum of bilateral trade and investment relations including formalising the informal cross-border trade.
Many understandings reached on several issues relating to trade & transportation,” the adviser said in a message posted on the social media website Twitter after his Kabul tour.
