Oman Daily Observer

TIR Convention to fuel multimodal trade flows

- FROM P13

Convention, and this is one of the opportunit­ies that is available for Oman to implement in the future. And IRU is a very good partner for us, because they have worked with countries to implement these convention­s, and those convention­s facilitate trade — saving time and cost in transport and trade.”

The Oman Logistics Centre, said Naula, is working very hard in the implementa­tion of the World Trade Organisati­on’s (WTO) trade facilitati­on agreement. The Sultanate is a member country of the WTO, he noted.

The agreement will help facilitate trade from the standpoint of speedier customs clearance, he pointed out. “How can we avoid having goods waiting for some documentat­ion or inspection? How can we streamline all these activities, so legitimate trade can flow freely without disturbanc­e or inspection? One of the things we are trying to put in place control procedures, which are vital for any country to safeguard its vital interests like tax collection, product safety, and so on. These control procedures can be done before the arrival of the goods or after the release of the goods, with minimum delays at border crossing points.”

Measures implemente­d by the government, based on the recommenda­tions of the Oman Logistics Centre, are already having a positive impact on the ground, according to Naula. “One of the initiative­s that we began about a year ago is on preclearan­ce — where goods can be customs cleared even before their arrival of the goods. Already 18 per cent of sea shipments are precustoms cleared, which means they don’t have to wait when arriving at the port. It has been estimated by the World Bank that a saving of one day in goods transport can increase trade by one per cent. So if we can cut 2-3 days on the average dwell time at ports, we may be able to increase trade by 2-3 per cent, which will be beneficial for the country.”

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