Pakistan’s accession comes at auspicious time, says Dastgir

Sufficient safeguards are available if India also becomes a signatory

ISLAMABAD: The accession to the TIR Convention has come at a most auspicious time as work on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is under way and prospects of enhancing trade with Iran after the lifting of sanctions have become a reality, said Federal Minister of Commerce Khurram Dastgir.

He made these remarks while speaking at a seminar organised by the Ministry of Commerce on “Pakistan’s Accession to TIR Convention and its Implementation in Pakistan”.

“India is not a signatory of the TIR Convention (Customs Convention on the International Transport of Goods) and in case of its accession in future, sufficient safeguards under Article 45, 57 and 58 of the TIR Convention can be invoked if Pakistan is not willing to give its transit rights,” the minister said.

The Ministry of Commerce obtained detailed information from the IRU and TIR Secretariat, UN Economic Commission for Europe on the issue, which reveals that apprehensions about the automatic entitlement of transit rights to India were not correct.

There are currently examples of some TIR contracting parties with borders, but with no TIR customs offices between them, for example, Turkey-Armenia, Armenia-Azerbaijan and Russia-Georgia.

Contracting parties are only recommended to publish the list of TIR customs offices, but a contracting party cannot force another contracting party to include its border crossing in this list.

“Pakistan’s geographic location in the heart of main North-South and East-West corridors makes this region a natural bridge between Asia and Europe via its transport communications,” said Dastgir.

He said Pakistan offered optimum access to landlocked Central Asian Republics’ TIR community to the Arabian Sea and beyond, which would tremendously increase transit and trade opportunities.

“Without paying taxes and customs duty, we will get access to regional countries,” noted Dastgir, adding this was a great opportunity for Pakistan to make the country a regional transit hub.

On July 21 this year, the United Nations accepted Pakistan’s Instrument of Accession to the Customs Convention on the International Transport of Goods (TIR Convention). The convention will come into effect for Pakistan on January 21, 2016, six months after its acceptance by the UN.

TIR Convention provides that goods would be accompanied by an internationally accepted customs document (TIR Carnet), opened in the country of departure and serving as a customs control document in the countries of departure, transit and destination. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th,  2015.

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