ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has nominated Commerce Ministry Additional Secretary Rubina Athar as focal person to lead Pakistani Technical Group to discuss trilateral trade agreement among Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan.
The technical working groups of all three countries will meet next month in Dushanbe to discuss the draft of the trilateral agreement. Pakistan also presented a fifteen-member list of Joint Business Council (JBC) and sought list from Afghanistan.
A ministry source told Customs Today that prior to going for trilateral discussions, Afghanistan, Pakistan Transit Trade Coordination Authority (APTTCA) held detailed discussions on the third session of the agenda which could not be taken up on the second day of the meeting on Friday.
The source said that due course of discussions, both sides agreed to make progress on the issue of signature of Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) and agreed to speed up talks in this regards. Moreover, the source said that Afghan side offered that Pakistani investors could invest in special economic zones (SEZs) and free economic zones (FEZs), the source said, adding that currently, the Afghan side apprised the meeting the seven economic were under process as per National Infrastructure Plan program and these would contain all necessary necessities and EZs at Faryab and Kunduz were relevant to Pakistan.
On the issue of Joint Business Council (JBC), the source said that Pakistan presented a fifteen-member list of JBC to Afghan side and sought list from other side.
“Pakistan also handed over draft of the terms of reference (TORs) to Afghan side under which the JBC will function for the promotion of bilateral trade,” the source added.
He said Pakistan raised the issue of not provision of multiple entry visa for Pakistani workers, saying that the visa was available for higher executives and not for workers, however the Afghan side assured resolution of the issue and said that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had issued directions to Afghan Foreign Affairs Ministry to liberalise visa regime for neighbouring countries.
The source said that both the sides also agreed that cooperation between Afghan Customs Department (ACD) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) should be enhanced to remove the trade irritants.
“Main focus remained on taking measures to ensure online data sharing between customs authorities of both the countries to ensure transparency and swift cross border movement to trade goods,” the source said.
