January 15, 2020
Pakistan’s newly opened southwestern Gwadar seaport has become Afghan transit trade with the first ship carrying consignment of fertilizer for Afghanistan reaching the port on January 14. The ship was welcomed by a batch of students of a local girls’ college. The port now will be handling transit cargo headed to and from landlocked Afghanistan, marking a significant outcome of Pakistan’s multi-billion dollar collaboration with China.
The containers carrying Afghan cargo through the Gwadar port will be loaded onto trucks for transport to Afghanistan through the Pakistani border town of Chaman, according to a statement by the Ministry of Commerce.
Prior to this, under a bilateral deal with Islamabad, known as the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA), Afghanistan had relied on Pakistan’s overland routes and the two main southern seaports of Karachi and Port Qasim. With China’s financial and construction efforts in developing the deep-sea port of Gwadar, now especially the southern regions of Afghanistan have a much shorter overland link, for the rapid delivery of goods.
The port is the pivot of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which encompasses the building of roads, power plants, economic zones, and a major airport in Gwadar to improve connectivity between China and Pakistan and regional countries.
The opening of this trade port for Afghan transit trade augurs well for Afghan traders as it will facilitate in the quick transshipment and clearance of their goods, thus boosting their trade activities.
