PESHAWAR: The symbiotic trade relationship between the Pakistani and Afghan traders continues to flourish during the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) blockade of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation supplies to Afghanistan as bilateral informal trade maintained its monthly flow of around $200m.
However, some exporters had to change their routes due to sit-ins of the PTI and its allies and increase by Afghan authorities in their transit in their transit and toll charges in Torkham and routes in Jalalabad.
Officials and traders said that the wheat flour traders were now using the route via Ghulam Khan in Waziristan to consign their goods to Afghanistan as Afghan customs and tax authorities were charging Rs150000 as Ilm-o-Khabar rahdari (transit tax) from each truck of wheat flour.
The local traders said the informal trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been thriving for many years, which also includes the smuggling of goods originally brought under the Afghan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA).
It was hardly affected by the PTI blocked of Nato supplies.
Zahidullah Shinwari, President Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KPCCI), said the most cited goods dealt in informal trade were livestock, foodstuff, carpets, precious stones and automobile parts.
INTERNEWS
