Pakistan and Afghanistan have approved another extension on the application of the Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) after they failed to agree over the revised draft of the transit deal, leading to a delay in the signing of the pact.
Earlier, both sides had extended the application of APTTA 2010 by three months following its expiry on February 11, 2021. The Express Tribune newspaper reported that Islamabad has now approved another extension of six months in the agreement.
Last month, the country's commerce ministry pointed out that the APTTA 2010 was a 10-year agreement, which was due to expire on February 11 this year, but it was extended by three months by both countries following approval of their respective cabinets.
Subsequently, two meetings were held in 2020 -- one in Kabul and another in Islamabad -- for the revision in the transit trade agreement. In the Islamabad meeting last December, both nations agreed that the text of APTTA 2010 would be revised and updated.
"Afghanistan shared a revised draft of the agreement by incorporating its suggestions in the first week of April 2021 in response to the draft shared by Pakistan in December 2020," the Tribune report stated.
Thereafter, nine sessions of technical negotiations were held between April and May this year, however, disagreement persisted on many articles of the agreement.
According to the Pakistani daily, more sessions and interaction at the policy level would be needed to resolve the points of disagreement and finalise the APTTA 2021.
( With inputs from ANI )
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