KARACHI: A large number of complaints of goods being stopped at the Pak-Iran borders are being received. The businessmen community in the country has emphasized that the Ministry of Commerce and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar must set up a mechanism for the quick resolution of such day-to-day issues and ensure the free flow of goods at borders.

 In light of Iran’s growing role in regional trade, IRU and Iran’s private and public sectors held high-level talks on avenues for further expansion. Iran’s role in trade and transit has increased considerably over recent years. In 2021, the country’s overall transit traffic rose by 68%, while transit traffic by road doubled. Transit is forecasted to grow by another 25% by the end of this year.

IRU Secretary General Umberto de Pretto was in Iran last month to discuss how the country can continue along this positive trade and transit trajectory. The authorities and IRU expressed their satisfaction with how they have cooperated and successfully implemented joint projects to further improve east-west and north-south corridors crossing Iran.

 All recognized that Turkmenistan’s recent opening of its borders will now permit to the connection of China to Turkey and Europe via Iran, making the southern corridor a viable alternative to the northern one. Both parties expressed their satisfaction with how the IRU-ECO partnership has evolved in recent years, which has led to several successful joint projects in the region, such as the opening of the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul (ITI) corridor.

The Ministry of Commerce Pakistan last year in October had urged for the facilitation of transit trade through Iran via the Taftan border for exports to Central Asian Republics (CARs), Azerbaijan, Iraq, Turkey, etc. It is pertinent to mention here that while banks in Pakistan do not issue an e-form and I-form for export-import through the Iran transit route due to sanctions on the neighboring country, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is also not taking interest in the promotion of transit trade even though no banking transactions take place between Iran and Pakistan for transit of goods through Iran.

 It may be recalled here that last year in September, the first consignment of the National Logistic Cell (NLC) left Pakistan for Turkey and Azerbaijan through Iran. The NLC had started its operations under the TIR Convention; it was the second operator in Pakistan and the first in the public sector to begin its operations under TIR. Previously, goods had to be offloaded from Pakistan’s trucks and reloaded onto Iran’s trucks at the Taftan-Zahedan border.

Published in The Daily National Courier, December, 01 2022

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