Improving Customs Transit Systems
In the Islamic Countries
28
coordination with OGAs to facilitate transit trade using the Single Window concept. This is
important to reduce costs and time spent on BCPs when it comes to transit procedures. The
single window concept allows coordinated information exchanges by different national
authorities. In such a way, traders can submit all transit information required by authorities at
one time rather than providing the same information repeatedly to various government
agencies.
When it comes to transit fees and charges , it is essential to have fair fees that would be non-
discriminatory and limited to the real cost of the transit service provided. Also, it is critical for
these fees to be published and available for all stakeholders in the process. In many countries,
there are hidden fees and charges based on the inspection on the transit route by different
authorities. The efficient CTR will need to eliminate or keep them on the lowest possible level.
Another essential part of an efficient CTR is related to using security measures that will enable
transit goods and means of transport to stay in the same condition as they enter transit
countries. The standard way to implement security measures for this purpose is to affix customs
seals at the beginning of the transit procedures. CAs also can put time limits when the
consignment will need to be at the customs office of exit, specification of routes for
transportation, or use GPS technology to track the movement of the transit goods. Another
possible way for security, especially for high-risk shipments and shipments that cannot be
secured with the seals, is the convoys guarded by customs officers. This approach is obsolete
and considered as an extreme measure because it will increase time and cost for the customs
transit procedure.
As presented in Table 2, the large part of the global supply chain consists of transit procedures
based on the number of transit countries between the departure and arrival of goods. Having in
mind that the costs of the supply chain will depend on costs of transit, and transit costs are the
function of the number of BCPs inside the chain, Coordinated Border Management (CBM)
becomes an essential way to the development of an efficient CTR. TheWCO has developed a CBM
Compendium, including best practices identified in different areas of CBM. The document
provides guidance on effective coordination at borders. Successful CBM requires an institutional
arrangement for coordination, working hour’s alignment, joint customs controls, one-stop
border stop, and appropriate infrastructure and equipment at BCPs. With effective CBM, it will
be possible the time and costs related to transit procedures to be cut in half because the transit
goods and means of transport will not need to pass two BCPs at the border crossings, but
everything will be processed inside one Joint BCP. Examples of Joint Road BCPs are Chirundu
(Zambia-Zimbabwe) and Busia (Kenya-Uganda).
Like every system, an efficient CTR will need to incorporate the performance measurement to
control the effectiveness of transit procedures and identify possible bottlenecks. The term