PESHAWAR: Better trade policies can save the country from further economic fall, and depoliticizing of Pak-Afghan Trade Transit Route might attract international traders to invest for the economic development in the region.
To facilitate the import of perishable goods, including fresh fruits from Afghanistan, dedicated staff has been posted for the round-the-clock clearance of goods at the Torkham Customs Station. This was stated by Collector Customs Gul Rahman while talking to Customs Today at the Customs House Peshawar on Thursday.
The Collector Customs further stated that the same procedure has been adopted at Kharlachi and Tank customs stations to collect the revenue and facilitate the importers and exporters. Similarly for facilitating clearance of fresh fruits from Afghanistan, a dedicated line of customs officials are working at different customs stations.
The Collector Customs further said that, due to security related operations in the area, Ghulam Khan Customs Station is presently not operational on the border with Afghanistan.
The sources at the ministry of commerce informed Customs Today that although Pakistan and Afghanistan share mutual trade yet the inclusion of India in the trade agreement will altogether erode Pakistan’s commercial and strategic competitiveness in the region. It will provide India with a direct land link to Afghanistan and rest of Central Asia and even beyond. Thereby the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries has come down from $1.846billion in 2015-16 to $1.623billion in 2016-17.
When Collector Customs was asked about the role of FRB in evolving a trade strategy between Afghanistan and Pakistan in order to eliminate the risk of border closures, he responded that Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan have decreased from $1.437billion to $1.286billion while imports from Afghanistan witnessed a decrease from $0.409billion to $0.337billion during the same period.
The Collector Customs further said there have been many reasons for trade decrease between both countries. The Collector Customs added that a decline in aggregate demand as a result of the drawdown of Nato forces from Afghanistan is causing trust deficit, worsening law and order, frequent closures of Pak-Afghan border and diversion of Afghan trade to Iran.
