February 24, 2003	Monday	Zul Hijjah 22, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 23: Pakistan has decided in principle to reduce the number of items from 24 to 12 which it has restricted to pass through its territory under the Afghan Transit Trade, an official source told Dawn.

Under the new scheme that would be presented to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet in its forthcoming meeting for approval, the negative list under the ATTA (Afghan Transit Trade Agreement) would come down to 12 items from the existing level of 24 items.

These sources said that a decision to this effect was taken early this week at a meeting of commerce and finance ministries. Accordingly a summary has been submitted to the ECC for approval that also includes flexible trade dealings with Afghanistan.

As such, Islamabad would allow Kabul to import via Pakistan items like razors, shaving material, cosmetics and electronics like televisions, CDs and VCRs etc. and restrict only inevitable items like explosives, arms and certain chemical categories, these sources said.

The sources said recent agreement between Iran and India to establish road and railway links from India to Afghanistan via Iran has made Pakistan to rethink its trade arrangements with Kabul

Afghanistan has historically been relying on imports through Pakistan under the Afghanistan Transit Trade Agreement. Pakistan had, however, restricted around 24 items to pass through its territory which it believed were of no use in Afghanistan and were smuggled back into Pakistan.

Afghanistan has been asking Pakistan since the fall of Taliban government on almost every forum that the negative list should be done away with.

The Afghans contend that many items that were of no use in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime have now become daily use items and should not be restricted by Pakistan.

Pakistan had promised to the Hamid Karzai administration last year to review the Afghanistan Transit Trade arrangements in a way that it was beneficial to Kabul but did not harm the Pakistani industry.

When contacted, commerce minister Humayun Akhtar Khan said that Pakistan had promised the Afghan authorities to review the ATT and confirmed that a final decision would be taken by the ECC.

He refused to divulge the details but confirmed the “policy (with Afghanistan) is under review particularly in the light of recent India-Iran developments”. He said “Pakistan would be more flexible in trade with Afghanistan”.

Replying to a question about the export of around 15,000 tons of fertilizer to Afghanistan, the minister said that ECC had deferred the issue recently to see whether Kabul really needed that product and at the same time examine local requirements so that there was no problem for the local agriculture sector.

Replying to another question whether Pakistan would also accept Kabul’s demand to allow Indian products to pass through its territory, the minister replied in negative and said India would have to talk to Pakistan on that subject.