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Friday, May 14, 2010
Pakistan and Afghanistan close to trade transit deal* Afghan agricultural minister says pact will help Afghan farmers transport goods to Indian markets more easily
WASHINGTON: Afghanistan is close to reaching a long-delayed trade transit deal with Pakistan that would allow produce to be trucked across its neighbor to key importer India, Afghan Agriculture Minister Mohammad Asif Rahimi said on Thursday.
A trade pact would help Afghan farmers move goods to markets in India more easily, which has been a challenge as officials try to entice farmers away from growing poppy crops whose proceeds fuel the Taliban insurgency. The agriculture minister was optimistic a deal could be signed in time for an international conference in Kabul on July 20, but he said this would be the first phase of a new arrangement with the option to negotiate more later.
“By end of July” the deal should be signed, Rahimi told Reuters in a joint interview with US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Rahimi, who is in Washington with Afghan President Hamid Karzai this week, cautioned: “Last May we said the trade transit deal would take place in December and hopefully nothing dramatic will happen in the region to stop the signing of this.” A trade transit agreement between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been in limbo for years. It was meant to be pushed through last December but that timetable lapsed.
Additional talks are expected in the coming weeks to hammer out a final arrangement, which Rahimi said was not everything Afghanistan wanted but a good first step. One problem still to be overcome, he said, is that while trucks would be allowed to cross Pakistan, they would not be permitted to enter India, Pakistan’s key rival. reuters
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk