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Viewing cable 09KABUL1544, Afghan Commerce Minister on Upcoming Af-Pak Transit Trade

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
09KABUL1544 2009-06-16 13:47 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Kabul
VZCZCXRO0481
PP RUEHDBU RUEHIK RUEHPOD RUEHPW RUEHYG
DE RUEHBUL #1544 1671347
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 161347Z JUN 09 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9485
INFO RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC 0822
RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE
RUEABND/DEA HQS WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 0109
UNCLAS KABUL 001544 
 
DEPT FOR SRAP, SCA/FO, SCA/RA, AND SCA/A 
DEPT PASS FOR AID/ANE 
DEPT PASS USTR FOR DELANEY AND DEANGELIS 
DEPT PASS OPIC 
DEPT PASS FOR TDA FOR STEIN AND GREENIP 
USOECD FOR ENERGY ATTACHE 
CENTCOM FOR CSTC-A 
NSC FOR JWOOD 
TREASURY FOR MHIRSON, ABAUKOL, AWELLER, AND MNUGENT 
COMMERCE FOR HAMROCK-MANN, DEES, AND FONOVICH 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O.  12958 N/A 
TAGS: ETRD AF PK
SUBJECT: Afghan Commerce Minister on Upcoming Af-Pak Transit Trade 
Negotiations 
 
1. (SBU) Afghan Commerce Minister Shahrani told EconCouns June 16 
that Afghanistan will take a positive, constructive approach in 
negotiations with Pakistan on a new Af-Pak Transit Trade agreement 
(APTA), starting June 23.  Shahrani noted the GOP's extensive 
objections to the draft agreement text the GIRoA proposed and last 
month's negative Pakistani media reports regarding APTA. 
Regardless, he said, the Afghan delegation will focus on what he 
called the soft issues (aka low-hanging fruit, also his term) in 
this round.  It will seek to confirm that sections of the text the 
GOP has not objected to are agreed and ask the GOP to explain those 
areas where it has raised objections.  The Minister agreed with 
EconCouns' point that many of the apparently agreed points in the 
text were valuable in terms of Afghan interests. 
 
2. (SBU) Shahrani expected this second round of talks to be smooth. 
He welcomed the visit of SRAP and SCA staffers Goodman and Brady at 
the time of the talks and said the GIRoA had proposed that USG 
officials be allowed to attend the talks as observers.  He said the 
GOP rejected this request. 
 
3. (SBU) Shahrani said after dealing with easier issues, the GIRoA 
will gradually raise tougher ones, perhaps in subsequent rounds. 
The difficult issues Shahrani listed and his comments on them 
follow.  He noted that GOP positions on several of these issues 
represent steps backward from the already inadequate current Transit 
Trade agreement: 
 
-- Wagha transit corridor.  Freer transit trade across Pakistan to 
India remains the GIRoA's main objective in these negotiations. 
Under the current Transit Trade agreement, Afghanistan can export to 
India only with great difficulty and cannot import from India at 
all.  Afghanistan is mostly interested in facilitating its exports 
to India.  The Afghan delegation may bracket that section of the 
agreement text dealing with Pakistani transit rights to Central 
Asian states if the GOP does not drop its objection to Wagha. 
 
-- Trucking.  The GIRoA is willing to discuss standards issues to 
accommodate GOP concerns on letting Afghan trucks operate in 
Pakistan. 
 
-- Re-export to Pakistan of transit goods.  This issue raised by 
Pakistan could be solved by adequate Pakistani control of its 
borders. 
 
-- Possible quota on transit goods.  The GOP may propose a 
quantitative limit on the Afghan goods that can transit Pakistan 
each year, but it has not yet proposed text on this. 
 
-- Dispute resolution.  The GOP objects to referring bilateral 
disputes regarding implementation of the agreement to any third 
party. 
 
-- International agreements.  The GOP objects to most references in 
the text to international agreements relating to transit trade. 
 
-- National law provisos.  GOP insertion of text that would make the 
agreement "subject to national law" is a step backward.  The whole 
idea of a bilateral agreement is that it supersedes national law or 
that national law should be amended to conform to such an agreement. 
 
 
4. (SBU) While listing these difficult issues, Shahrani reiterated 
that the GIRoA would take a positive approach to the upcoming 
negotiations and focus initially on easier issues.  EconCouns 
welcomed that approach as the most productive. 
 
EIKENBERRY