KARACHI: Trade and Industry of country urged government to speed up efforts for maximum utilisation of international trade routes by road, especially, efficient and commercial use of Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul (ITI) corridor. Pakistan has already ratified United Nations Customs Convention on International Transport of Goods under cover of TIR Carnets (TIR Convention) in July 2015. But unfortunately, it has not been utilised way it should be. 

 Pakistan Turkiye Business Council Chairman and focal convener on TIR matters Amjad Rafi of FPCCI has been following up this matter for more than one year. Worldwide trading goods carnets are issued by International Chamber of Commerce and in recent past, Pakistan issued only 20 TIR carnets while Iran issued maximum number of more than 125,604 TIR carnets in year 2021 to TIR carnet holders making him biggest issuer of TIR carnets. Iran is sanctioned county and you cannot purchase or sell goods of certain types to that country but transit permission means that you loaded truck from Karachi, got Customs clearance and it would be opened after reaching its destination in Azerbaijan or Turkiye after passing through Iran. It means that you are internationally allowed to use Iranian roads corridor for trading purposes. If there is any suspicion about it there is an SOP established for this purpose, sources disclosed. 

Pakistan may have three most important advantages from TIR road transit trade through its neighbouring countries. We can save time which is an average of forty days by ship export to Turkiye while it would require only ten days if sent by road. Importance of this time factor could be assessed from fact that India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are competitor countries of Pakistan. In this case, our time will be limited to ten days but competitors’ time on shipping would remain 40-45 days. This is most valid factor in terms of trade to execute your export orders in ten days while their goods would remain delivered in more than 40 days. We will be ultimate winner in this regard having fast transactions while buyers would also prefer us for quick deliveries against longest period holders.

 Second biggest advantage is saving precious foreign exchange for country since it would involve NLC or any other local transporter companies instead of foreign shipping companies. Shipping companies are charging freight and other expenses in dollars and remit same outside country. Time is saved while foreign exchange would be saved for country by importers and exporters.

 Third advantage is that such goods are not prone to port charges or Terminal Handling Charges. Our commercial banks are afraid of Iran transit unnecessarily, they have no clear perception of this trade and its related business. Once they entered into this business they will enjoy it enormously.

Published in The Daily National Courier, December, 21 2022

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