The National Logistics Cell (NLC), one of Pakistan’s biggest multimodal logistics organisations, has commenced Transports Internationaux Routiers (TIR) operations for Turkey and Azerbaijan, informed Advisor to Prime Minister on Trade and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood on Friday.
Hailing the development, Dawood in a tweet post stated this is the beginning of a new era of ‘Connectivity through Trucking’ under the Ministry of Commerce’s Silk Route Reconnect policy.
“It is a milestone in making Pakistan a transit and transshipment hub,” he said. The advisor also informed that a number of private companies are applying to get TIR permission, adding the government will provide all facilities to them.
“It will attract investment and create opportunities for our logistics companies and allied services due to the flow of international trade traffic through Pakistan,” said Dawood.
In April, Pakistan sent its first-ever TIR consignment carrying herbal medicines by Afghanistan to Uzbekistan. Whereas last month, Pakistan exported its first mango consignment to Russia via road, under the TIR. The mango consignment left Pakistan via the Taftan/Mirjawa border with Iran, and will reach Russia via the Tehran-Astara (Azerbaijan)-Astrakhan route.
The TIR Convention is an international customs transit system that facilitates trade by expediting border checks between countries. Pakistan entered the TIR Convention in 2016 and was declared as a ‘TIR Operational Country’ by the IRU (International Road Transport Union) in April 2018.
The TIR is a highly secure international Customs transit system for goods international movement across frontiers of Member countries. It enables intermodal transportation with minimum interference hence facilitates free flow of goods at competitive transport costs and with minimal physical inspection of goods. The system is based of TIR Carnet which is a document issued under TIR for sealed road transport for each shipment enabling it to reach the destination country without customs inspection.
The NLC was awarded the TIR license by Pakistan National Authorization Committee (PNAC) of the International Transport Union (IRU), which administers the TIR Convention internationally.
The Advisor was informed that the NLC plans to undertake TIR operations to Turkey and Azerbaijan shortly and will be the leading TIR operator to undertake regional trade.
Pakistan exports mangoes to Russia for the first time via road
Pakistan entered the T.I.R. Customs Clearance System, which is administered globally by the International Road Transport Union (IRU) and in Pakistan by the Pakistan National Commission of International Chambers of Commerce (PNC- ICC). Countries are admitted to the system by signing a multilateral treaty.
Pakistan was admitted to the system as the 69th member state in 2016. Today 77 countries are part of this global trade system.
