TIR Convention to fuel multimodal trade flows

MAJOR STRIDES: Measures implemented by government in facilitating trade are having a positive impact on the ground: Oman Logistics Centre

The Sultanate’s accession to the TIR Convention, following its ratification by Royal Decree last month, will help facilitate and expedite multimodal trade flows across international borders, according to a high-level expert of the Oman Logistics Centre (OLC), an outfit of ASYAD — the nation’s flagship logistics group.

Tapio Naula (pictured), Vicepresident (Trade Facilitation) at Oman Logistics Centre, said the move enables Oman’s entry into a grouping of more than 70 countries that are signatories to the TIR Convention — a globally applicable international customs transit and guarantee system.

Formally known as The Convention on International Transport of Goods Under Cover of TIR Carnets (TIR Convention), it enables goods to be shipped from a country of origin, through transit countries, to a country of destination in sealed load compartments that are controlled by customs via a multilateral, mutually recognised system. It is the easiest, safest and most reliable way to move goods across multiple international borders, saving time and money for transport operators and customs authorities.

Explaining the beneficial implications of TIR membership for Oman, Naula said: “First of all, trucks will need to spend a lot less time at border crossing points, so there are direct benefits there. Trucks units can travel across the member countries of the TIR Convention more or less freely, with minimum checks only, and no inspections.”

Equally, the Convention will facilitate customs guarantees, said Naula. “Up until now it was necessary to place guarantees with the customs (of overseas countries as safeguards if something adverse happened to the cargo). Guarantees must be paid whenever the shipment crosses an international border. This chain of guarantees can be very cumbersome and costly. But TIR has only one guarantee — it’s a worldwide guarantee and that’s the beauty of the whole convention; it expedites the movement of goods quite a lot. But it’s also multimodal — it can apply to air and sea transport as well.”

Naula welcomed the support extended by the International Road Transport Union (IRU) — which manages the TIR Convention — in enabling Oman’s accession to the multilateral treaty.

“The Convention is just one example of the many multilateral legal instruments that can be implemented in Oman,” the expert on trade facilitation explained. “There are some instruments related directly to road transport, such as the CMR