Abstract:
Being a landlocked country Afghanistan depends almost entirely on port facilities and land routes of Pakistan for its imports and exports. During 1996-2000, Afghanistan’s transit trade through Pakistan was of the order of $2276 million, despite much political turmoil in that period. It is expected that the transit trade in future would be far greater in volume and value than the pre-2000 period. Much of the goods in transit to Afghanistan are off-loaded in or travel back to Pakistan, with both beneficial and harmful impacts. The paper concludes that since Pakistan cannot impose restrictions on Afghan’s transit trade and as no account of administrative measures and/or border check can stop. The off-loading/flow of Afghanistan imports to Pakistan, and more importantly in view of the fact that thousand and thousands of Pakistanis are dependent on this trade, Pakistan should accept this phenomenon/situation as an almost unchangeable realty. The paper, however, stresses that there is a need to so adjust Pakistan’s tariffs and import policy that the spill over of Afghanistan’s goods in transit through Pakistan are minimized and their harmful effects on Pakistan’s economy are nutralised.
Page(s):
297-304
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Sarhad Journal of Agriculture, Volume: 20, Issue: 2, Year: 2004