Daily Times

Pak-Afghan Youth Forum, (PAYF), as a platform to promote Pak-Afghan strong ties and facilitate cooperation among the citizens of both sides, organized a webinar on “Pak-Afghan Trade Issues: Opportunities, Challenges, and Responses”. The platform brought together prominent figures from both countries’ trade and commerce communities to discuss the various issues that led to a decrease in Pak-Afghan trade over the years.

The key note speaker of the event was Shandana Gulzar Khan; Parliamentary Secretary for Chamber and Commerce. She spoke passionately of the importance of bilateral trade between both countries, mentioning how the current government is working hard to reduce the issues faced by traders on both sides. She also mentioned the importance of CPEC and its potential to benefit both Afghanistan and Pakistan. She also highlighted how recent visit of PM Imran Khan to Kabul can be fruitful in opening new avenues for trade and commerce industry and how frequent visits of delegates from both sides has helped for understanding of issues and addressing them with more clarity.

The webinar platform allowed the traders from both sides to talk about their grievances openly. The webinar was carried out in English, Urdu and Pashto, for ease of participants and audience, hence allowing the traders to voice their concerns with ease. Nizam Khan Salarzai, youth leader from Erstwhile FATA moderated the session and event was broadcasted live on social media, with participants ranging from students of business administration, forestry, pharmacy and senior members from business community of both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Esteemed panelists included Khan Jan Alokozay, who is the founder and co-president of Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PAJCCI), as well as the Vice-Chairman of the Afghanistan Chamber Federation. He emphasized Pakistan and Afghanistan’s dependence on each other for trade and goods and appreciated the changing negative perceptions in recent times, as well as the changes in policies. He was saddened about how transit trade that used to be above 100,000, cargo containers between the two countries is now limited to 10,000-15,000 containers only. He also mentioned the importance to revive agreements like APPTA to fuel trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Naqibullah Safi, the Executive Director for PAJCCI, spoke on issues hampering trade and urged the government of Pakistan to sign a Professional Trade Agreement. Safi also highlighted how the recent visit of Prime minister Imran Khan was of vital importance in facilitating trade between the two nations. He also described how the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Issues Contract Agreement (APTICA) could be amended to increase trade between the two countries.

Qasim Yousufi, the Board Director for the Nangarhar Chamber of Agriculture and Livestock Products, mentioned the issues at Torkham border, where lot of Afghan trade containers stuck either at Torkham and Karachi, due to the slow scanning system from Pakistan side and later they have to pay fine $150, which is illegal according to Pak-Afghan agreement.

Ahmad Shah Yarzada, board member of PAJCCI elucidated the audience about how Pakistan scans Afghan goods on unilateral basis. He said the traders were initially told that only 20% of the goods sent would be scanned but Pakistan scans 100% of all the goods sent. In his opinion, this slow and thorough scanning process, coupled with the limited daily capacity of Pakistan to scan, meant that only 100 containers could be scanned, when over 70,000 containers were present.

Shandana Gulzar, answered the questions and listened to all the issues regarding Pak-Afghan trade and assured traders that their concerns would be raised with relevant authorities and apprehensions would be resolved soon.