Improving Transnational Transport Corridors
In the OIC Member Countries: Concepts and Cases
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Fraunhofer Institut (2015) has studied what "price" Europe would have to pay when Member
States and other stakeholders failed to implement the core network as the central element of
the new TEN-T policy. Their conclusion is that the economy would give away an 1,8 % growth
potential and 10 million man-years of jobs would not materialize. Fraunhofer Institut (2015)
further concludes that investing in transport infrastructure promises more to the European
economy and its citizens than what it costs.
Preconditions enhancing the success of corridors are the existence and effectiveness of
technical and economic and financial agreements . According to Gerald (2014) “a poor
distribution channel will influence the price strategy that affects the freight service and
promotion of the product in the marketplace. As a result, the channel functions are critical
aspect of the transportation network system that connects international corridors.”
3.4. Trade Facilitation
The most important steps in the evolution of TEN-T included establishing funding for the
construction of new infrastructure and missing links, setting up Transport Infrastructure
Needs Assessment Unit (TINA) in Vienna, agreements to facilitate trade and harmonize
customs procedures, common passport and immigration controls. The final step was the
Schengen Agreement that paved the way to removing borders all together on mainland
Europe. It was signed on 14 June 1985, near the town of Schengen and in 1990, the Agreement
was supplemented by the Schengen Convention, which proposed the complete abolition of
systematic internal border controls and a common visa policy. Thus, this led the way to totally
borderless trading between EU member states and provided the ultimate level in trade
facilitation between sovereign states that exists in the World today and, as a result of this,
intra-regional trade increased as enumerated in the previous section.
To illustrate this intra-regional trade data from EuroStat has been extracted and the analysis
contained in the has been produced. The analysis shows that intra-regional trade has
been between 50% and 60% of total EU trade over the last 13 years or so. It shows that for all
its members that intraregional trade has grown over this period by an overall average of 3%
per annum. The top 6 out of 28 trading countries accounted for 36% of all intraregional trade
(see Figure 16). The levels of interregional trade in the case studies are very small by
comparison, but where there is a strong political commitment to regional integration as with
the EU, that level will increase for sure.