Pakistan, Afghanistan to boost trade relations

• A Pakistani delegation visited Kabul to discuss joint initiatives for boosting cross-border transit and connectivity.
• Meetings were held with ministers and top officials from various Afghan Ministries.
• Border crossing points, including Torkham, Karachi, Ghulam Khan, and Spin Boldak, will have longer operational hours.

From July 18 to 20, a Pakistani delegation headed by Secretary of Commerce Muhammad Sualeh Ahmed Faruqui visited Kabul to discuss joint initiatives for boosting cross-border transit and connectivity.

During the two-day tour, the delegation also reviewed the essential trade facilitation measures to solve the real-world challenges faced by importers, exporters, merchants, and businesses from both sides.

The Pakistan team includes representatives from all pertinent ministries and departments with regard to economic contact, commerce, transit, commercial exchanges, and improving facilitation at all border crossing locations in order to achieve significant progress on these issues.

Meetings were held with ministers and top officials from various Afghan Ministries, including Nooruddin Azizi, the acting minister of commerce, and Amir Khan Muttaqi, the acting minister of foreign affairs.

The following beneficial outcomes were agreed upon by the two parties during the substantive discussions:

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1. Bilateral trade and transit have increased over the past fiscal year. On a mutually advantageous basis, this momentum needs to be maintained and further reinforced.
2. It was decided to make border crossing points more effective in order to ensure prompt passage of trade and transit traffic and to prioritize resolving bottlenecks and obstacles.
3. To further boost trade between the two nations, the two sides decided to create a Temporary Admission Document (TAD) that would provide unfettered circulation of vehicles engaged in bilateral trade and prohibit loading and unloading of cargo at border crossing locations.
4. All crossing points, including Torkham, Karachi, Ghulam Khan, and Chaman/Spin Boldak, would have longer operational hours as a result of an agreement between the two sides’ competent authorities.
5. In order to increase the effectiveness of the clearance of products, the heads of the customs departments of the two nations decided to collaborate and develop mutually connected custom procedures and systems.
6. Actions should be made to begin a luxury bus service between Quetta and Kandahar and Peshawar and Jalalabad, with a goal of launching the service by the end of August this year.
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7. Through mutual collaboration, difficulties in visa processing would be resolved.

The two parties underlined their commitment to maintaining regular coordination in order to put these understandings into practice and increase economic cooperation.

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