BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 9
By Fatima Zulfigar - Trend:
The Customs Convention on the International Transport of Goods under Cover of TIR Carnet (TIR Convention, 1975) formed a single global customs transit system, head of the press and PR department of the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, Natig Akhundov told Trend.
"This is the only international customs transit system in which Azerbaijan is a member," Akhundov added. "Therefore, the introduction of digital TIR operations into international economic corridors passing through Azerbaijan ("East-West" and "North-South") is one of the priority issues."
"The eTIR pilot project, which we successfully implemented with the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2019, was applied in bilateral transportation," the head of the department added.
"Azerbaijan's priority as the main transit country in the region is the use of digital transit operations in the corridor concept," Akhundov said. "Therefore, we consider it important to use the eTIR procedure, depending on the level of technical readiness of the countries on both mentioned routes."
"The main advantages of the eTIR project are the optimization of customs control measures by accelerating cross-border and customs operations in international transport through digitalization, minimizing contacts between officials and carriers, as well as the effective application of the customs risk system through preliminary e-exchange of information on transit transportation," head of the department said.
"This project also allows developing relations in the Customs-to-Customs (C2C) and Customs-to-Business (C2B) chains in a new e-plane," Akhundov said.