Now that I have your attention, let me explain the title. I sit on a working group, that ultimately provides input to the development of Afghan national policy as it relates to customs. The working group consists of members of ISAF (the name of the NATO HQ, which stands for International Security Assistance force), Afghan Customs, representatives from Minister of Finance, Foreign Affairs, Interior, Commerce, Defense, and the Presidential Palace, also, representatives from USAID, US Dept of State, Treasury, and occasionally, Dept of Homeland Security (the customs arm), and of course, US military logistics liaisons (me). Our aim is to try to assist Afghanistan in making their border management more efficient, and of course to determine ways to generate revenue, i.e, tolls, and taxes.
I am certainly no border/customs expert, but part of my job here entails the processing of customs import documents, and coordination with Afghan customs officials to ensure our monthly usage of fuel (30+ million gallons/month) flows effectively into the country. Afghanistan currently has no internal fuel production (that is an interesting story of itself, that I will tell at another time). Anyway, our working group met a couple of days ago to address some real critical items that had the potential to undermine our ability to freely import fuel and dry cargo. That particular day, we had an interesting collection of personnel. Besides the Afghans, we had a German, a Pol (Poland), 2 Brits, a Slovakian, a Belgian, and a lawyer from Estonia! No think about that-- at one time or another, all of these were former enemies (except the Belgian). Here we were, united in trying to develop policies that would not only improve Afghanistan, but provide unmolested support to our troops fighting together a common enemy! My favorite person, is the Slovakian, who I tease that he was former KGB. He is built like a bull, is bald, has very prominent cheek bones, and his accent reminds you of a Russian spy! He is, however, extremely bright, bold, and has a marvelous sense of humor.
Anyway, collectively, we came up with some ideas for the Board (called the JCB--Joint Coordination Board) which met today. One of the things that topped the list, was an idea I came up with. The Afghans, by treaty, cannot tax military imports for use by coalition forces. They hate this agreement, because of the incredible number of trucks that bring food, water, toilet paper, ammunition, repair parts, fuel, etc., from the port in Karachi, Pakistan into Afghanistan. Well, currently, there is no strong trade agreement between the 2 countries that allows Afghan trucks to transit in or through Pakistan. As you know, Afghanistan is land locked (the establishment of current borders being decided by the British in the late 1800s). This has really put Afghanistan at a disadvantage for both export (to the east-- China, and India), and import through a sea port. So, Pakistan is getting all of this transportation revenue (contracts in the billions of $) and are able to enter Afghanistan tax free (because they are contractors to coalition military forces). It is a legitimate complaint. Recently, however, under US and NATO direction, the countries developed a trade agreement, that would allow Afghans transit rights through Pakistan. Well, under constitutional laws of both countries, these agreement has to be ratified by their respective parliaments. The Afghan parliament ratified it very quickly. However, the Pakistanis have not moved very fast. Their lack of decision, they blamed on the recent flooding in Pakistan as many members of parliament were directly effected. The reality of it is, is that many members of parliament own the very transport companies that are receiving the billions of US $s. They do however, know that international pressure will ultimately force them to ratify the agreement.
In the meantime, the Afghans wanted to impose a "tax" on the Pakistani trucks, under the guise that the tax is on the "trucks", not the US and Coalition governments. This is not a valid argument, however, because our treaties specifically state that no tax will be imposed on our cargo, or our contractors carrying our cargo (because we all know that we will end up paying the tax anyway because the contractors will pass the expense onto the American tax payer). So, this dumb old cowboy from Arizona suggested that we allow time for Pakistan to ratify the agreement, and spend our efforts pushing the political and diplomatic powers to pressure Pakistan to sign the agreement, then focus our attention on the issues at hand-- smooth, efficient flow of military cargo. Anyway, I was at the table today, amongst Afghan leaders and US/ISAF military leaders who sit on this board, when my proposal was presented. It seemed to meet with every ones satisfaction, including the lawyers, and the proposal will be presented formally to President Karzai later this month!
Do I have confidence that ultimately the Afghans will wait patiently for diplomatic pressure to ensue? NO! they will go ahead and implement the tax in a couple of weeks right at the point when millions of gallons of fuel and thousands of container trucks reach the border for crossing. They will instruct their border officials to stop passage unless the toll is paid. This same thing happened a couple of weeks after I arrived, and it will happen again. Anyway, it was fun to be apart of this multinational gathering at this high level of policy development.
On another note, the Afghan elections happen in 2 days, and we are expecting increased violence all through the country as the Taliban attempts to stop people from voting (mainly because about 15% of the candidates are women)! I will update you on that on my next post.
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