No proposal on table to open up trade route: Pak minister

ISLAMABAD: Less than two days after a US envoy said Pakistan had indicated it could consider opening its routes for trade between Afghanistan and India, foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi made it clear that no such proposal was on the table.

“Pakistan has not agreed to consider Afghanistan-india trade through our land,” Qureshi was quoted as saying by the Foreign Office.

Islamabad’s refusal to allow the transportation of Indian goods through its territory has become a sticking point in the implementation of the Afghanistan-pakistan Transit Trade Agreement.

Afghan trucks carrying goods to the border trade post at Wagah would return empty as they barred from transporting Indian products.

India has tried to get around this problem through the development of Chabahar port in Iran, through which it has shipped items such as wheat to Afghanistan. India has also started directed cargo flights between several Afghan and Indian cities.

The US envoy to Afghanistan, John Bass, told the Indian media that Islamabad had indicated to Kabul its willingness to discuss trade between India and Afghanistan through its land routes.

This had happened after an increase in Afghan exports to India through cargo flights and the growing economic ties between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, Bass said.

A couple of months ago, the Pakistan government expressed its willingness to start talking with its Afghan counterpart on “parameters to enabling trade between India and Afghanistan through Pakistan”, he added. A political settlement in Afghanistan is in Pakistan’s long-term interest and increased trade and connectivity through Afghanistan would be “missed opportunities” if Islamabad remains focused on “perpetuating the status quo”, Bass was quoted as saying.

Qureshi, currently on his first visit to Kabul after assuming office, said on Sunday that Pakistan had waived regulatory duty on imports from Afghanistan. Afghan exports to Pakistan recorded an increase of 118% in 2018 and Islamabad will fasttrack steps such as standardisation and automation of custom procedures, he added.

Qureshi and his Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani decided to convene meetings of the Joint Economic Commission and bilateral transit trade coordination authority.