India recently organized a training programme for Afghan delegates to help them to understand World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements better.
The Indian Technical Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme was sponsored by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and organized by the Centre for WTO Studies at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade in collaboration with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Around 25 Afghan delegates attended the 10-day 'specialized training programme last month.
The training covered a range of issues such as tariffs, trade in manufactured and agricultural products and most importantly transit, which is enshrined as a right in the WTO.
"India's contribution in helping Afghanistan is immense and we expect more from India than Pakistan. We are not the member of World Trade Organisation (WTO) and we expect that India will play a major role in helping Afghanistan to become the member of WTO," said Naseer Ahmed, Director Trade and Service in the Afghan commerce ministry.
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"Afghanistan is a landlocked country and our main problem is that we do not have access to the sea and our borders are landlocked. We do not have access to Indian commodities. India is not allowed to export commodities to Afghanistan but we are allowed to export to India. When we become a member of the WTO, this problem will be solved and it will help our economy," added Ahmad Tariqu, Director of Commerce and Industry, Afghanistan.
If Afghanistan becomes a WTO member, then its exports will have access to all WTO member markets on a Most Favoured Nation (MFN) basis. This means that Afghan exports would be eligible for WTO member countries.
"It is a small gesture of the Indian Government in keeping good relations with the Afghanistan Government and Afghan people to cooperate and to develop their capacities in their network," said Prof. Mukesh Bhatnagar, Centre for WTO studies and ITEC coordinator.
India is conscious of the critical location of Afghanistan, which though a land locked country sits at an important north south, east west crossroad in the very 'Heart of Asia'.
Afghanistan's potential is becoming a 'round about' in global trade, as the Asian economies grow at an impressive pace. Afghanistan can be the link between the energy, resources and products of Central Asia and South Asia as exemplified by projects such as TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Pipeline) and CASA 1000 (Central Asia - South Asia Electricity Transmission And Trade).
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