PESHAWAR: The businessmen community representative has called for a review of the new Pak-Afghan Transit Trade Agreement.
Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry Senior Vice-President Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, in a statement, said that the transit trade between both the neighbouring countries would come to a halt if the two governments did not go for immediate review of the agreement and took steps to redress the difficulties emerging in the wake of the agreement.
Sarhadi, who is also vice-chairman of the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Standing Committee on Customs Agents, stressed the need for a comprehensive policy for taking benefits of the big Afghan market and growing markets of the Central Asian Republics.
He said problems in the trade agreements were resulting in the decline of exports to Afghanistan. Sarhadi said during the last six years, the transit trade business has been almost shifted to Chabahar and Bandar Abbas ports of Iran, which has downed the volume of bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan from $2.5billion to $ 1.5 billion while both countries are making efforts to take it to $5 billion.
