.

The UN agreements on border crossing facilitation and the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement

Tarcisio Hardman Reis

Marseilles, 4 November 2015

WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA)

Section I

Art. 1: Publication and availability of information

Art. 2: Opportunity to comment, information before entry into force, and consultations

Art. 3: Advance rulings

Art. 4: Procedures for appeal or review

Art. 5: Other measures to enhance impartiality, non-discrimination and transparency

Art. 6: Disciplines on fees and charges imposed on or in connection with importation and exportation and penalties

Art. 7: Clearance of Goods

Art. 8: Border Agency Cooperation

Art. 9: Movement of goods intended for import under customs control

Art. 10: Formalities connected with importation, exportation and transit

Art. 11: Freedom of transit

Art. 12: Customs cooperation

Section II – Special and Differential Treatment Provisions for Developing

Country Members and Least-Developed Country Members

Art. 13: General principles

Art. 14: Categories of provisions

Art. 15: Notification and implementation of category A

Art. 16: Notification of definitive dates for implementation of category B and Category C

Art. 17: Early Warning Mechanism

Art. 18: Implementation of category B and category C

Art. 19: Shifting between categories B and C

Art. 20: Grace period for the application of the understanding on rules and procedures governing the

settlement of disputes

Art. 21: Provision of assistance support and capacity building

Art. 22: Information on assistance and support for capacity building to be submitted to the committee

Section III – Institutional Arrangements and Final

Provisions

Art. 23: Institutional Arrangements

Art. 24 Final provisions

Art. 1: Publication and availability of information

Art. 2: Opportunity to comment, information

before entry into force, and consultations

Art. 3: Advance rulings

Art. 4: Procedures for appeal or review

Art. 5: Other measures to enhance impartiality, non-

discrimination and transparency

Art. 6: Disciplines on fees and charges imposed on

or in connection with importation and

exportation and penalties

Art. 7: Clearance of goods Art. 8: Border agency

cooperation

Art. 9: Movement of goods intended for import under

customs control

Art. 10: Formalities connected with

importation, exportation and transit

Art. 11: Freedom of transit Art. 12: Customs

cooperation

TFA – Section I

UN Agreements on border crossing facilitation

Working Party on Customs Questions affecting Transport (WP.30)

Customs Convention on the International Transport of Goods under Cover of TIR Carnets (TIR

Convention, 1975)

Secure vehicles/containers

International guarantee

TIR Carnet Controlled access Mutual recognition of customs control

International Convention on the Harmonization of

Frontier Controls of Goods (Harmonization, 1982)

Mutual recognition of customs control

Medico-sanitary, Veterinary,

phytosanitary, inspections and control of quality

and technical standards

Facilitation of border crossing

procedures for road transport

Facilitation of border crossing procedures on

freight rail

Not covered by the UN

Transport agreements

Mostly covered by the

UN Transport

agreements

Partially covered

by the UN

Transport

agreements

Art. 2: Opportunity to comment, information before entry into force,

and consultations

Art. 3: Advance rulings

Art. 4: Procedures for appeal or review

Art. 6: Disciplines on fees and charges imposed on

or in connection with importation and

exportation and penalties

TFA – Section I

Art. 1: Publication and availability of

information

Art. 5: Other measures to

enhance impartiality, non-discrimination and transparency

Art. 12: Customs cooperation

Art. 7: Clearance of goods

Art. 8: Border agency cooperation

Art. 9: Movement of goods intended for

import under customs control

Art. 10: Formalities connected with

importation, exportation and

transit

Art. 11: Freedom of transit

Mostly covered by the UN

Transport agreements TFA – Section I

Art. 7: Clearance of goods

Art. 8: Border agency xooperation

Art. 9: Movement of goods intended for

import under customs control

Art. 10: Formalities connected with

importation, exportation and

transit

Art. 11: Freedom of transit

Harmonization Convention

TIR CONVENTION

Examples of provisions covered by the UN Conventions:

TFA TIR Harmonization

Art. 7 (4.3) Focus on high-

risk consignments

Art. 5 Goods carried under

the TIR procedure shall not

as a general rule be subject

to examination

Art. 2 The Convention aims

at reducing the number and

duration of controls

Art. 8 (2.a) Alignment of

working days and hours of

customs at borders

Art. 7 Cooperation in relation

to opening hours of frontier

posts

Art. 9 Allow goods to be

moved to a customs office

inside the territory (instead

of borders)

Possible under TIR

operations

Annex 1, art. 1

It is possible, if appropriate

to carry out controls inside

its territory

Art. 10 (2.1) Acceptance of

paper or electronic copies of

documents

eTIR (forthcoming) Art. 9 Shall accept

documents produced by any

appropriate technical

process

Art. 11(2) Transit shall not be

conditioned upon collections

of fees or charges

Art. 46 No charges shall be

made for customs

attendance in connection

with customs operations

under the convention

Articles partially covered by the UN Transport Agreements:

TFA TIR Harmonization Comments

Art. 1: Publication

and availability of

information

The TIR procedure is

transparent when it

comes to procedure,

applied rates, fees

and charges.

The Harmonization

Convention promotes

increased

transparency on

import, export or

transit restrictions and

prohibitions.

Requirements related

to the dissemination

of information through

internet and enquiry

points are not

covered.

Art. 5: Other

measures to enhance

impartiality, non-

discrimination and

transparency

The Harmonization

Convention covers

enhanced controls

(through emergency

measures) and

detention of declared

goods.

The Conventions do

not cover the

requirements for test

procedures under the

TFA.

Art. 12: Customs

cooperation

Promotes customs

cooperation on a

number of issues.

Promotes customs

cooperation on a

number of issues.

Limited to the scope

of each convention.

Comparative table:

TFA TIR Harmonization

Aim Facilitate trade Facilitate transit

procedures

Harmonize different

types of border

controls

Parties 51

(not yet into force)

69

(58 operating

parties)

57

Mode of transport All Intermodal

(as long as one leg is

made by road)

Maritime, air and

inland frontiers

Negotiating

authorities

Trade Customs and/or

transport

Customs

Entry into force 59 additional

ratifications are still

necessary

20 March 1978 15 October 1985

Insights from the presentation:

Trade/customs relation

Practical implementation of the

TFA

Benefits of the UN agreement for the

private sector

Cooperation between CEFACT and UNECE

transport

.

eTIR pilot projects

Joan Padreny

Marseille, November 4th 2015

project

Rationale for the eTIR project

National

Public Private

International

Transport operator

National Association

International organization

Customs

Guarantee Chain

B2C: Declaration & guarantee certificate

C2B: Transport & Operations

C2C: Transport & Operations B2B: Guarantee

certificate

The eTIR system: a public private partnership

Guarantee

Chain

eTIR international

system

Transport

Operator Customs

Public Private

B2C

C2B

B2B C2C

B2C

C2B

Why a centralized system

Customs

Decentralized approach (bilateral)

Customs

Customs Customs

eTIR international

system

Centralized approach (multilateral)

Customs Customs

Customs Customs

Architecture

ENTERPRISE SERVICE BUS (ESB)

Security – Authentication and Authorization

Routing and Orchestration

National

System

SOAP/HTTP

National

System

SOAP/HTTP

National

System

JMS

National

System

SMTP

National

System

FTP

Centralized

DB

C2C

Pilot projects

UNECE-IRU eTIR pilot

Actors involved

2 Associations

2 Customs Administrations

2 Holders

2 Countries

2 Organizations

Objective

Geographical scope

Izmir

Teheran

Bazargan Gürbulak

1 TIR HOLDER

1 TIR HOLDER

eTIR high-level architecture

Customs Customs Customs

TIR associations TIR associations TIR holders TIR holders TIR holders TIR associations

Trusted DataExchange

WebServices

UNECEPortalWebServicese

ITDB Web Services

IRU tools

• TIR Holder:

Order a eGuarantee online

Association:

Approve and issue the eGuarantee

TIR Holder:

Pre-declare the transport and

GO!

Customs:

Receive electronic advance cargo information for better risk management

Operate paperless, more efficiently with increased security and reduced fraud

Holder Portal: Print at home carnet

TOBB

TOBB Dumlupınar Bulvarı No: 252 06530 Ankara/Turkey

Mars LOGISTICS, Ankara Str. 34000 Istanbul

TUR/042/1172

UNECE-IRU eTIR pilot

UNDA eTIR pilot

United Nations

DEVELOPMENT ACCOUNT

Actors involved

1 Organization

2 Countries

UNDA

2 Customs Administrations

Objective

UNDA

Data Exchange

CUSTOMS

Exchange Platform

CUSTOMS

eTIR Pilot Turkey - Georgia

UNDA

Next steps

Transition towards the full eTIR

eTIR has a larger scope, including exchanges of data with the guarantee chain and the complete elimination of the paper

B2B

eTIR

Guarantee Chain

eTIR international

system

Customs

EP

Guarantee Chain

Exchange Platform

Customs

Transition

The pilot is limited to the exchange C2C TIR data between customs administrations but is a first step for the implementation of the full eTIR system

eTIR legal considerations

• Possible legal frameworks

– Amending the TIR Convention

– A Protocol

– A new Convention

• Other legal considerations

– Authentication and data integrity

– Data protection

– Central administration

• Group of Experts on Legal Aspects of Computerization of the TIR Procedure (GE.2)

– first session: Geneva, 16-17 November 2015

Questions?

.

Thank you!

Tarcisio Hardman

Joan Padreny

TIR secretariat

Sustainable Transport Division

http://tir.unece.org

8-14, Avenue de la Paix

CH-1211 Geneva 10

Switzerland