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Massive increase in Pak-Afghan trade as Taliban takes charge

hydrabadi_arab

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PESHAWAR: Traffic on both sides of the Torkham border on Wednesday increased massively as cargo trucks continued to cross the border, contrary to fears of a reduction in Pak-Afghan trade and transit traders due to the changing situation in Afghanistan.

While repatriation of stranded Afghans also begun, customs officials reported that trade on the Pak-Afghan border has almost doubled since the Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital.

According to Customs Clearance Agent Fazlullah, who works at Torkham border, there has been a huge increase in bilateral trade contrary to fears and expectations.

Fazlullah said that earlier the number of imports in 24 hours did not consist of more than 60 to 70 vehicles as the former Afghan government agencies did not want better trade relations between the two countries; however, as many as 270 cargo trucks were cleared within 24 hours of the Taliban taking charge of what is the largest border crossing between the Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Traders said that it is not yet clear how much of the prices announced by Taliban will be implemented whereas the people will set their own prices until a formal government is formed.

Traders also remarked that the Afghan currency has depreciated sharply since Ashraf Ghani fled the country in haste, prompting traders involved in Afghan trade to avoid ordering goods to avoid any possible misfortune.

Meanwhile, the Taliban has decided to reduce customs duties on 159 items in Afghanistan, most of which are food items, leading to a 50 to 90 per cent drop in prices.

The list released by the Afghan Taliban on Wednesday shows that the price of flour, oil, rice, vegetables, fruits, and other food items have witnessed a decrease in prices after the reduction in customs duty.

The list also includes construction items such as cement, steel, glass, plastic, petrol, diesel, foam and others.

According to Afghan businessman Hekmatullah, the reduction in customs duties will reduce the prices of food items as well as other items, including construction materials and electronic products, which were overpriced mainly due to the high customs duty.

He said that the reduction in customs duty will also benefit traders, adding that all these announcements are specific to the law and order situation in Afghanistan. “If the situation improves, the confidence of traders and the general public will be restored,” he said.

However, he said that a although a favourable business environment will create more job opportunities, it would be without a conducive environment; neither the traders nor the general public will benefit from such announcements.

 
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Clearing a backlog of trade vehicles is now being heralded as a miraculous increase? I am skeptical.

The previous regime used petty tactics to keep the trade low, including not clearing cargos for no reason, asking for money, damaging goods etc. They also would unfairly tax Pakistani goods. That regime had no goodwill for its own ppl and was driven by foreign puppets. Now that taliban are back, ull see the trade will increase many folds. Initial step is ofcourse to clear the backlog and stop those petty tactics.
 
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It's mainly because many vehicles who were stuck at the border for past couple of weeks started moving.
 
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Clearing a backlog of trade vehicles is now being heralded as a miraculous increase? I am skeptical.
Nothing is heralded dude. You didn't read properly. There no need to be spektial at all things. Somehow pakistanis have developed this habit of finding fault with everything.
Yes all the trade tricks that were struck now cleared. And I hope it would remain so. And it would open a huge oeprtunity. Specially for our large scale industry. We can provide enough food and other things that would be exported to Afghanistan.
 
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India went as low as wanting to build a dam on Kabul river just to stop the flow of water into Pakistan, curtailing trade between Afghanistan and Pakistan would have been the first place they should and did start to keep in line with their agenda of strangulating Pakistan from all sides. The unnaturally low volume of trade between Af-Pak is a testament to this egregious policy.
 
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Clearing a backlog of trade vehicles is now being heralded as a miraculous increase? I am skeptical.
Keep in mind afghan government was creating problems in signing a new trade deal. So the previous one made by ppp which had caused exports to afg to drop by 70% was extended. Pak exports to afg will certainly increase as there's less custom duties etc.
 
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Afghanistan needs food and medical aid now, to make sure people are taken care of before people have to spend the coming winter with meager resources. The world needs to act now, or else by winter people will set out for Europe.
 
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Well in that case make as much money as possible while benefiting our Afghan brothers with cheaper goods. Both happy. Alhamdulilah.
 
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Masha'Allah. Beautiful news. Both countries have waited two decades for this good news.

I pray trade between both the brotherly Muslim countries increases so much that they become interdependent and seek out new ways to improve relations.

I also hope that trade between Iran and Afghanistan also jumps manifolds.
 
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