INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to abandon barter trade and to establish banking relationships during the two-day talks in Kabul, the
Islamic Emirate&s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid announced late Thursday.The agreement came during talks between Afghan delegation led by
Acting Minister of Industry and Commerce, Nooruddin Azizi, and the Pakistani delegation led by Federal Secretary of Commerce Muhammad
Khurram Agha.It was agreed that the Pakistani side will facilitate the transfer of goods from international containers to regional
containers in the ports of Karachi in the next six months, Mujahid said in a statement.An agreement was made regarding preferential trade,
where both sides will give tariff preferences to those 10 items of export goods, 8 of which are agricultural and 2 items are industrial.The
sides agreed on a temporary free license for truck traffic for one year as a trial period, which will be implemented from May 2024.They also
reached an agreement regarding the transfer of goods through the airports of the two countries in the form of multi-modal air transit, which
will start in the next two months.As part of Pakistan&s recent measures regarding Afghanistan&s transit goods, it was agreed that within a
week, the mandatory bank guarantee should be removed and insurance should be used as before, in consultation with the parties, the necessary
measures will be taken to remove other obstacles.The export of coal from Afghanistan to Pakistan was also discussed and the Pakistani side
expressed its readiness to buy it at the international price, according to the statement.Earlier Pakistan&s Charge d&Affaires for
Afghanistan, Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani said in a video message on Wednesday that the recent trade talks in Kabul had been &successful& and
that he hoped this would give fresh impetus to bilateral trade between the two countries.The post Afghanistan, Pakistan agree to abandon
barter trade, establish banking relationships first appeared on Ariana News.
