Countries along the middle corridor that connects Central Asia with Europe have agreed on concrete next steps to accelerate the interconnection of their national customs systems with the eTIR international system in an effort to digitalize transit in the region.
At a recent TIR Executive Board (TIRExB) meeting held in Uzbekistan, representatives of Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, including representatives from the International Road Transport Union (IRU), European Union, Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA), Islamic Development Bank and GIZ, discussed practical steps that will enable them to start using the eTIR procedure by interconnecting their national customs system to the eTIR international system, which was developed by UNECE’s TIR secretariat to modernize and facilitate the cross-border transportation of goods in transit.
By joining the eTIR international system, the customs administrations and transport operators of the countries along the corridors connecting Central Asia and Europe will be able to seamlessly exchange and receive TIR data, dramatically reducing the transit time, the time required for risk analysis and therefore the fraud connected with transit, including the required resources.
The transformation of the middle corridor to an eTIR corridor will give the opportunity to large exporting countries and contracting parties to the TIR Convention, such as China, India and Pakistan, to also start using the electronic procedure of the TIR system, further increasing the volumes being transported along the corridors.
The first eTIR transport paving the way to a digital era in international transport and transit of goods took place between Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan earlier this year. Since then, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Uzbekistan along the middle corridor have completed their interconnection projects and finalized the conformance tests, while Pakistan and Tunisia are about to finalize the conformance tests. Furthermore, Türkiye will start its conformance tests soon.
UNECE will start implementing the concrete steps, namely the action plan agreed with customs authorities and national associations during the meeting. If required, the UNECE TIR secretariat will convene a follow-up meeting during the year to review the implementation status of the interconnection processes to the eTIR international system in the region.
More information can be found here: www.etir.org
Watch our video: eTIR turn borders into bridges - YouTube
More about the TIR Convention: Introduction | UNECE