News Paper: Business Recorder
KARACHI (July 20 2010): The business fraternity on Monday termed the new Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) a 'serious blow' to the already crumbling business activities in the country. Businessmen expressed serious reservations over the APTTA and said the agreement, singed by the neighbouring countries, looks to have been influenced by the United States of America.
They said the agreement would enhance smuggling and the Indian products would overflow the Pakistani markets, which are already flooded with substandard Chinese goods. "The Indian products would be available on cheap rates, as a result the imported ones would struggle to compete with the unwanted supply," said an importer in a reaction to the agreement.
An importer of spices said the agreement would increase the smuggling of seasonings from India and as a result their huge annual imports would suffer. "Afghanistan's market is not considered to be a spices consumer market, therefore the commodities would flood Pakistan's markets," he expressed concerns.
"There is no mechanism that could stop the smuggling of Indian products, which would subsequently be available on cheap rates against several imported items of the same nature," he said. Importers dubbed APTTA as a 'bad diplomacy' by Pakistan and said the agreement would harm the national economic interest of the country without giving any trade benefits in return.
Whereas, small traders said the move would prove to be a "last blow" to the trades and businesses of the country which were already bearing the brunt of prolonged outages and an abysmal law and order situation. The APTTA would further increase the trend of under invoicing by local importers to compete with the smuggled products, and as a result the national treasury would lose a sizeable chunk of revenue, they said.
They also said the agreement would only benefit India as compared to Afghanistan, as the latter has nothing special other than dry fruits to export to the former. The agreement does not enshrine Indian trade and is confined to Afghanistan's exports through Wagha land route to India and in return according to the agreement, Pakistan would use Afghanistan as a transit route to supply its commodities to the Central Asian markets. The lack of understanding of the agreement has spread panic not only amongst businessmen but also has shocked the consumers.
However, the facts relating the smuggling of tea, spices and other commodities into Pakistani markets through the Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) cannot be denied, despite the latest agreement is different from the last one.
-www.brecorder.com
They said the agreement would enhance smuggling and the Indian products would overflow the Pakistani markets, which are already flooded with substandard Chinese goods. "The Indian products would be available on cheap rates, as a result the imported ones would struggle to compete with the unwanted supply," said an importer in a reaction to the agreement.
An importer of spices said the agreement would increase the smuggling of seasonings from India and as a result their huge annual imports would suffer. "Afghanistan's market is not considered to be a spices consumer market, therefore the commodities would flood Pakistan's markets," he expressed concerns.
"There is no mechanism that could stop the smuggling of Indian products, which would subsequently be available on cheap rates against several imported items of the same nature," he said. Importers dubbed APTTA as a 'bad diplomacy' by Pakistan and said the agreement would harm the national economic interest of the country without giving any trade benefits in return.
Whereas, small traders said the move would prove to be a "last blow" to the trades and businesses of the country which were already bearing the brunt of prolonged outages and an abysmal law and order situation. The APTTA would further increase the trend of under invoicing by local importers to compete with the smuggled products, and as a result the national treasury would lose a sizeable chunk of revenue, they said.
They also said the agreement would only benefit India as compared to Afghanistan, as the latter has nothing special other than dry fruits to export to the former. The agreement does not enshrine Indian trade and is confined to Afghanistan's exports through Wagha land route to India and in return according to the agreement, Pakistan would use Afghanistan as a transit route to supply its commodities to the Central Asian markets. The lack of understanding of the agreement has spread panic not only amongst businessmen but also has shocked the consumers.
However, the facts relating the smuggling of tea, spices and other commodities into Pakistani markets through the Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) cannot be denied, despite the latest agreement is different from the last one.
-www.brecorder.com
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