Improving Customs Transit Systems
In the Islamic Countries
21
United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business
 UN/CEFACT Standards Recommendations 33 and 35 – Single Window;
 UN/CEFACT Standards - UN/LOCODE (Location Code List), Presentation of UN/CEFACT
standards, Business Requirement Specifications (BRS), Core Trade Components Library
(UN/CCL), International Organization for Standardization / Technical Committees
(ISO/TC) 154 (Processes, data elements and documents in commerce, industry and
administration), Requirements Specification Mappings (RSM), United
Nations/Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport
(UN/EDIFACT) (dataset and messaging standards) and Extensible Markup Language
(XML) Schemas.
In addition, the Vienna Programme of Action for Landlocked Developing Countries for the
Decade 2014–2024, emphasize the use of advanced ICT, including the electronic exchange of
information among CAs of landlocked developing countries and the transit countries to improve
the effectiveness of transit shipments.
The Almaty Programme of Action: Addressing the Special Needs of Landlocked Developing
Countries within a New Global Framework for Transit Transport Cooperation for Landlocked
and Transit Developing Countries also focuses on the needs of landlocked developing countries
to promote more efficient integration into the global trade through the implementation of
specific actions in the priority areas of fundamental transit policy issues, infrastructure
development and maintenance, international trade and trade facilitation, international support
measures and implementation and review.
New Computerized Transit System (NCTS) - The legal basis for this regional transit system is
the EC/ European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Convention on a common transit
procedure of 20 May 1987. It is applicable to all EU Member States, EFTA states, North
Macedonia, Serbia, and the only OIC Member State, Turkey. Thus, Turkey is using both the TIR
and the NCTS systems in parallel. In order to become a member of NCTS, a country must be
formally invited by the EU-EFTA Joint Committee on common transit, unlike the TIR system,
which aims for worldwide implementation. Even though it is unlikely that another OIC Member
States will become an NCTS participant – with the exception of Albania – it is still worthwhile to
describe this transit system, as a source of advanced practice and a learning resource.
The 2016 NCTS Transit Manual (Taxation and Customs Union / European Commission – EC
DG TAXUD/A2/TRA/003/2016-EN) describes in detail how transit operations are managed
under this system. Of note are several NCTS features:
1) Each transit movement is assigned the unique Movement Reference Number (MRN);