Cabinet Allows Passage of Banned Auto Parts to Kabul

The Federal Cabinet has allowed the passage of 40 feet containers of banned auto parts into Afghanistan at the request of the World Food Program (WFP). The banned spare parts are for a fleet of Renault trucks maintained by the WFP despite cabinet members raising concerns that these items will be smuggled back to the country. Although there is no prohibited list of items in the Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA-2010), the Commerce Ministry has prohibited the transit of these items to curb smuggling since 2004. The cabinet has allowed the transport of these items from time to time on request of various international organizations like UNHCR, UNAMA, and WHO. In 2017, the ministry requested to allow the Federal Minister of Commerce to sign off on shipments after ensuring no associated commercial value rather than sending the case to the cabinet but the cabinet asserted to refer the matters on a case-to-case basis.     The Cabinet members expressed concerns that these spare parts will be smuggled back into the local market, but they were told that it was a one-time exception for WFP on a single container. After that, the cabinet approved the summary for the transshipment of the container that arrived at Karachi Port last month