Pakistan and Afghanistan signed agreed minutes of bilateral trade meeting held on Tuesday, expressing the desire to enhance business ties by overcoming existing challenges through frequent interaction and extended facilitation.
The meeting was a follow-up to Pakistan PM Khaqan Abbasi’s visit to Kabul last month where President Ashraf Ghani and he finalized the Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS).
Afghanistan’s Deputy Ambassador Zardasht Shams spoke to CRSS and confirmed the news, stating that PM Khaqan Abbasi during his visit had announced to remove regulatory duty (RD) on Afghanistan exports to Pakistan which was recently imposed. This visit was to seek the implementation of that announcement since it was to be discussed between both commerce ministries at technical level. “Now we provided the list of items to be waived off from RDs,” he said.
“In addition, the recent quarantine measures by Pakistan had adversely affected our fresh fruits and vegetables exports. It agreed to ease and coordinate these measures. Cotton exports to Pakistan was also discussed and Pakistan agreed to facilitate it. While Pakistan proposed to arrange Afghanistan-Pakistan-Transit-Trade-Coordination-Authority (APTTCA) meeting to discuss all trade and transit impediments,” he said.
For more details of the meeting, view the Dawn News report here.
© Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) and Afghan Studies Center (ASC), Islamabad.
