ISLAMABAD, July 25: Pakistan has decided to withdraw three items - tyres and tubes, television sets and its parts and telephone sets - from the negative list under the Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) agreement.

Secretary Commerce Tasneem Noorani told Dawn on Monday that the exclusion of the items from the negative list would be notified by the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) shortly.

After the withdrawal of these items, the items ATT negative list would be reduced to three — cooking oil, cigarettes and auto parts — from 24.

Replying to a question he said that Pakistan had withdrawn its proposal of seeking zero customs duty on exportable products to Afghanistan, which, he added might become attractive for smuggling back into Pakistan.

The decision among others was taken at the Fifth Session of Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Economic Commission (JEC) which was co-chaired by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Salman Shah and Afghanistan Minister for Finance Dr Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi in Kabul recently.

An official announcement of the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) said that during the JEC both the countries decided to take effective steps to further improve business-to-business interaction and enhance bilateral trade through further streamlining of procedures, holding single country exhibitions and establishment of joint chambers of commerce and industry.

Both sides agreed to constitute Pak-Afghan Joint Custom Committee to examine issues relating to trade and transit. The committee would submit proposals for appropriate solutions.

Pakistan will establish 12 custom stations on Pak-Afghan border and state-of –the-art facilities are being set up at Torkham and Chaman for trade facilitation and speedy clearance.

Both the sides also agreed that efforts would be made to improve network of roads including Torkham-Jalalabad road to provide trade access to Central Asia through Afghanistan. It was also agreed to establish a joint committee to ensure prompt implementation of decision of the JEC. Pakistani committee would include four officers — one each joint secretaries of EAD and Commerce, chief CBR and DG Planning Commission.

Pakistani delegation offered that it would explore the possibility of establishing industrial parks in Afghanistan and on the Pak-Afghan border. Both the countries agreed to establish joint ventures in value-added and agro based industries.

The Afghan side requested for training of Afghan police personnel, postal workers and staff of audit and accounts in Pakistan, which was accepted and the Afghan authorities were asked to convey their requirements for the purpose.

The Afghan government acknowledged that transportation and handling of Afghan transit goods had considerably improved during the last three years.

The JEC was informed that $49.926 million had been utilized out of $100 million development assistance announced by Pakistan in 2002 for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Afghanistan.

Pakistan delegation gave progress on various projects like Chaman-Kandahar Railway Line, Rehabilitation of Turkham-Jalalabad Road, Ghulam Khan Khost Road, Power Transmission lines to Khost, provision of 200 trucks, 100 buses, 38 ambulances, assistance to Kabul University, rehabilitation of schools, faculty block in Bulkh University, Mazar-e-Sharif and Kidney Centre at Jalalabad.

The technical sessions was co-chaired by Secretary Economic Affairs Division, Khalid Saeed and Afghan Deputy Minister for Finance Asad Sakhi Farhad.