Friday, July 14, 2006
From a Geneva Basement to the Temirbaba Border Post
What has a truck carrying finished lumber from Turkey to Kazakhstan and crossing the Termirbaba border check post at the Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan border have to do with the basement of a nondescript office building of International Road Transport Union (IRU) in Geneva?
Plenty, if the truck crossed international borders using the TIR Carnet documents that are issued and ultimately managed by IRU.
These documents start -- and end -- in the office basement in Geneva.
Security-printed and numbered TIR documents arrive at this basement of IRU headquarters in Geneva and then get shipped to IRU affiliates in member countries.
The Turkish IRU office, assuming Turkey is the origin point of the truck we are talking about, receives these TIR Carnet documents. For a small fee, the Turkish IRU office issues it to a known and legitimate road transporter wanting to transport some lumber all the way from eastern Turkey to a construction project in Kazakhstan.
The originating office reports the issuance of the TIR Carnet to IRU. The customs-sealed truck with the IRU Carnet crosses multiple borders, with border checkpoints such as the one at Temirbaba reporting back to IRU in Geneva about the load and its associated TIR Carnet document having crossed that point. At the destination, after customs clearances, the TIR Carnet is retrieved by the IRU Kazakhstan office. Eventually, bundles of such TIR Carnets get shipped to IRU head office in Geneva, with the document completing its full cycle of journey that started in Geneva.
The used TIR Carnets are archived in Geneva and, in case of problems of disputes, the images of the documents or the documents themsleves can be recovered for appropriate action leading to the resolution of the problems.
Smooth, relatively seamless, fast, and secure road transport across national borders can occur when the TIR Carnet system works well.
While will established in Europe and its proximate nations for decades, the TIR Carnet system is practically nonexistent in Asia, with the exception of the CIS states.
It is time for the "unconnected" nations of East and South Asia to get on board with this system that has worked quite well for nearly half a century in Europe and its neighboring nations.
Nik Dholakia
University of Rhode Island
Plenty, if the truck crossed international borders using the TIR Carnet documents that are issued and ultimately managed by IRU.
These documents start -- and end -- in the office basement in Geneva.
Security-printed and numbered TIR documents arrive at this basement of IRU headquarters in Geneva and then get shipped to IRU affiliates in member countries.
The Turkish IRU office, assuming Turkey is the origin point of the truck we are talking about, receives these TIR Carnet documents. For a small fee, the Turkish IRU office issues it to a known and legitimate road transporter wanting to transport some lumber all the way from eastern Turkey to a construction project in Kazakhstan.
The originating office reports the issuance of the TIR Carnet to IRU. The customs-sealed truck with the IRU Carnet crosses multiple borders, with border checkpoints such as the one at Temirbaba reporting back to IRU in Geneva about the load and its associated TIR Carnet document having crossed that point. At the destination, after customs clearances, the TIR Carnet is retrieved by the IRU Kazakhstan office. Eventually, bundles of such TIR Carnets get shipped to IRU head office in Geneva, with the document completing its full cycle of journey that started in Geneva.
The used TIR Carnets are archived in Geneva and, in case of problems of disputes, the images of the documents or the documents themsleves can be recovered for appropriate action leading to the resolution of the problems.
Smooth, relatively seamless, fast, and secure road transport across national borders can occur when the TIR Carnet system works well.
While will established in Europe and its proximate nations for decades, the TIR Carnet system is practically nonexistent in Asia, with the exception of the CIS states.
It is time for the "unconnected" nations of East and South Asia to get on board with this system that has worked quite well for nearly half a century in Europe and its neighboring nations.
Nik Dholakia
University of Rhode Island
