97% Work On APTTA Completes: Secretary

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Aug, 2021 ) :The Senate Standing Committee on Commerce was informed on Wednesday that 97% work on Afghanistan�Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) has been completed as all the trade issues related to Afghanistan have been settled.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have already agreed on the extension of APTTA for the period of six months, Secretary, Ministry Commerce told the committee.

The meeting of the committee was held here under the chairmanship of Senator Zeeshan Khanzada.

The Secretary said after the change of regime in Afghanistan, he visited Chamman, Quetta and where there was not any restriction on movement of trucks to and from Afghanistan.

"Some 1047 trucks crossed yesterday out of which 557 trucks crossed through Torkham border", he added.

The system is working well with Afghanistan at the moment, Pakistan continues to trade with Afghanistan in accordance with international law, he added.

He said Basmati rice was being exported by both Pakistan and India while in the European Union, progress is being made on basmati rice at the request of Pakistan.

He said that India was already registered while Pakistan is going to register now.

In Pakistan, Khewra salt was produced only in Pakistan and the right to export would now be protected under Geographical Indication Law, he added.

Chairman Committee, Zeeshan Khanzada said that exports' growth remained stagnant for last 10 years but now it is showing upward trend.

The meeting was informed that the reason for export fluctuations over the years included Government policies of high consumption growth rather than exportable surplus, low labor productivity, low priority of E-Commerce, IT and IT enable services for exports, diversification of markets and diversification in export products.

It was further informed that the government has taken steps to enhance the exports including uninterrupted energy supply, extension in PM incentive package, export finance scheme (SRO 957/2021), E-commerce policy, facilitation business through refund RS 47.5 billion.

Meanwhile Senator Mirza Afridi suggested to develop a separate policy for the garment sector.

Chairman Trade Development Authority Pakistan (TDAP), Ahsan�Ali Mangi also briefed the committee regarding role of TDAP, function, structure and performance.

He said that TDAP reorganized its functioning on sectors lines to provide specialized facilitation to all stakeholders.

TDAP is Focusing on Look Africa Plan of the government to capture African region.

The committee informed that TDAP organizing training and information dissemination sessions about Amazon model and in process of selection of 100 SMEs in collaboration with SMEDA for product development and hand-holding.

TDAP has created an interface on TDAP website for all information related to Amazon.

Chairman Zeeshan Khanzada asked TDAP to conduct next board of Director (BOD) meeting in September.

The committee also directed Advisor to PM on Commerce to present in the next meeting.