NUR-SULTAN / ex ASTANA (Interfax-Kazakhstan) — President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan signed into law the Bill on Ratification of the Protocol on Amendments to the Agreement between the Governments of Kazakhstan and Georgia on International Road Traffic (TIR) dated March 6, 2007, the presidential press office has said.

The TIR Convention establishes an international customs transit system with maximum facility to move goods. It not only covers customs transit by road but a combination is possible with other modes of transport (e.g., rail, inland waterway, and even maritime transport), as long as at least one part of the total transport is made by road.

The Convention on International Transport of Goods Under Cover of TIR Carnets (TIR Convention) is a multilateral treaty that was concluded at Geneva on 14 November 1975 to simplify and harmonise the administrative formalities of international road transport. (TIR stands for Transports Internationaux Routiers or “International Road Transports”) The 1975 convention replaced the TIR Convention of 1959, which itself replaced the 1949 TIR Agreement between a number of European countries. The conventions were adopted under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

To date, more than 33,000 international transport operators had been authorised (by their respective competent national authorities) to access the TIR system, using around 1.5 mln TIR carnets per year.

In light of the expected increase in world trade, further enlargement of its geographical scope and the forthcoming introduction of an electronic TIR system (so-called eTIR-system), it is expected that the TIR system will continue to remain the only truly global customs transit system.