Pakistan Creates Barriers for the Export of Afghan Agri Commodities
Tuesday, 23 January 2018 - The Afghan Agri Products has been stopped due to the abrupt imposition of strict rules and regulation for Agri products from Pakistan. According to the press release of the Embassy of Pakistan in Kabul, disproved the banned on Afghan Agri products and added that as per the health and safety policy the Government of Pakistan did amendment in import policy for all the world in 820 categories of commodities, therefore, each and every country or businessman who want to export Agri commodities to Pakistan should present the Quarantine Certificate, the embassy declared that for the cited purpose, team of department of Quarantine of Pakistan is settled and in operational in Turkham and Chaman crossing points to effectively clear cargo products.
In response to the Press release of the Embassy of Pakistan, the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and industry ACCI on behalf of the Private Sector of Afghanistan added some points below:
1: this is true that the Government of Pakistan did not close the border for Afghan Goods but they made problematic environment by imposing tight principles for Afghan commodities without any prior notice and that was the right policy to stop the Afghan cargo.
2: According to the statement of press release, the embassy mentioned that the team of Quarantine department is in operational in Chaman and Turkham crossing points, unfortunately as per the ACCI information, there is no team of Quarantine department until 22 January 2018 in practice.
3: It is worth mention, that Afghanistan exporting one hundred and fifty thousand metric tons of Fresh Fruits and also one hundred and fifty thousand metric tons of Fresh vegetable to Pakistan annually, but in other side, excluding transit, Pakistan exporting about ten hundred thousand metric tons of Fresh Fruits and Vegetable to Afghanistan without having the subjected certificates.
Pertaining to this sort of obstacles in shape of Quarantine Certificate from Pakistan will not only move the business relation to the poorer situation but will also induce Afghan side to implement reciprocal act for Pakistani Products, which will affect the bilateral economy negatively and both sides business communities have to bear heavy losses.
To enhance and promote the bilateral economic connectivity and to avoid the worse political and economic environment, the Afghanistan chamber of commerce and industry (ACCI) intend and requesting the Government of Afghanistan to discuss the issue immediately with Pakistani channels to provide flexible and smooth climate of business for both sides.
Source: http://www.acci.org.af/component/content/article/38-news/751-n.html