The federal government announced a “Business-to-Business (B2B) Barter Trade Mechanism” on Friday for commerce with Iran, Afghanistan, and Russia.
Pakistan trade with Afghanistan, Iran and Russia: In this regard, the Ministry of Commerce also released a notification permitting state-owned businesses and private sector organizations to participate in importing and exporting commodities.
The change occurred two months after the federal Cabinet authorized a strategy to encourage barter commerce to boost regional trade in Pakistan.
The notification stated that the trader or their authorized agent had to submit an online application to the regulatory collector to authorize the import and export of products under the B2B barter trading facility.
A B2B barter trade agreement will permit the trade of goods under the “import followed by export” tenet, where export would equal the value of imported items.
The ministry has designated about 26 products, including milk, cream, eggs, cereal, meat and fish, fruits and vegetables, rice, salt, pharmaceuticals, finished leather and leather clothing, footwear, steel, and sporting goods, as exportable to Afghanistan, Iran, and Russia.
The government has announced the items that can be imported from Afghanistan, including raw rubber goods, raw hides and skins, cotton, iron, and steel. Other items include fruits, nuts, vegetables, pulses, spices, minerals, and metals.
Importers from Pakistan have the permission to bring in items such as fruits, nuts, vegetables, spices, metals, coal and related products, LNG and LPG, chemical products, fertilizers, articles made of plastic and rubber, raw hides and skins, raw wool, and articles of iron and steel from Iran.
However, Pakistani traders can import pulses, wheat, coal and related products, petroleum oils (including crude, LNG, and LPG), fertilizers, tanning and dyeing extracts, articles made of plastic and rubber, minerals and metals, chemicals, articles made of iron and steel, and textile industrial machinery from Russia.