TIR CARNET DIES, IT DOES NOT SURRENDER!

A mandatory requirement from 1st January 2009 endangers the TIR Carnet usefulness, since all freight entering the EU will have to be pre-declared at customs offices. It all began with an American requirement introduced just after 9/11, forcing any shipment going to the US to be pre-declared while the container was still in the port of departure. The EU policy makers decided to take the same approach and from next year any single entry in the EU will have to be pre-declared 2 hours in advance through an electronic declaration.

”This obligation is also for road transport. Trucks coming from Ukraine, Moldova or even by ship in Constantza have to be pre-declared and the transporter will have to find someone who can do this electronically in the customs IT systems. The irony is that if the transporter asks his customs broker to register the information when the truck is at the border, the vehicle will be blocked for two hours. I think that the TIR Carnet is going to be more expensive than today and its attractiveness will be lower,“ said Jirka Groenendijk, Director of TransiTNet. As an alternative, the International Road Union presses the implementation of the NCTS/TIR project, with its Electronic TIR Pre-declaration facility web application, in all EU member states in a large-scale effort to meet the upcoming provisions of the EU Customs Code.