Proceedings of the 14th Meeting of
The COMCEC Trade Working Group
20
8. The Efforts of the International Institutions / Private Sector
8.1. United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific
(UNESCAP)
“UNESCAP’s Perspective and Efforts on the Customs Transit Systems”
Mr. Sandeep Raj JAIN, Economic Affairs Officer of Transport Connectivity and Logistics Section
from United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UNESCAP) made a
presentation with the theme of UNESCAP’s Perspective and Efforts on the Customs Transit
Systems with the emphasize of the developing an Automated Customs Transit Transport
System.
Mr. JAIN briefly drew an outline for the presentation. He briefly shared information with
participants regarding the UNESCAP and its cooperation areas. Then Mr. JAIN mentioned the
emerging issues in transit transport facilitation by highlighting the importance of use of
automatic transit transport systems. He stated that the freedom of transit was firstly recognized
by the GATT In 1947. Then, he added, the TIR Convention in 1975 is the first international legal
instrument providing for a robust guarantee system. He pointed out that due to the increasing
level of integration and rising volume of transit transport and fraud coupled with the emergence
of ICT’s led countries of EU to develop a computerized transit system.
He continued his presentation by emphasizing the benefits of the automated transit transport
system. He mainly explained the benefits in two categories first for customs, then for private
sector. He stated that there are many benefits of automated systems. Firstly, he continued, the
automated systems improve the security of transit operations through more reliable and real
time exchange of information. Secondly, these systems reduce time for processing transit
documents and accelerated transit formalities through improved communication such as
electronic exchange of messages. Lastly, they improve the capacity to deal with various types of
fraud by better risk management to address security threats and revenue losses and automatic
validation processes and reduced manual interventions.
Furthermore, Mr. JAIN explained the benefits for private sector which are flexible guarantees
and their faster release reduce cost of transit transport, reduction of repeated data entry and
accelerated customs transit formalities.
Mr. JAIN stated that application of electronic tracking system and using new technologies are
also vital for the healthy customs transit processes. He pointed out that the tracking system is
already in use in many countries such as China, Jordan, Hong Kong and many countries in Africa.
He highlighted that UNESCAP developed a secure cross border transport model in 2012. Mr.
JAIN draw attention to that there is a need for standardization of key components of tracking
systems in order to contribute to transit transport facilitation in agreements.
In his final remarks, Mr. JAIN highlighted the rising importance of intermodal transit transport
facilitation. He stated that uncoordinated growth among transport modes has led to
unsustainable trends in development of transport, road transport contributes to three quarter