To support the countries of the region that are contracting parties to the TIR Convention and in line with the ongoing UNECE work on inland transport corridors, UNECE hosted today a meeting gathering representatives of governments from the countries of the Gulf and the broader region, customs offices, railway authorities and road transport companies represented by the International Road Union (IRU). This aimed to address operational challenges and possible solutions to facilitate smoother transport operations using the TIR Convention in the Gulf.
In order to provide transparency on available routes and enable streamlined planning of cargo along inland routes in the region, UNECE announces the activation of an Observatory on Border Crossing Points of the Gulf Countries. This new digital platform provides data on border crossings and TIR processing points originating from the customs authorities of the respective countries, as provided under normal circumstances in the International TIR Data Bank.
The observatory offers information about the countries of the Gulf themselves, as well as about their neighbors which are also Contracting Parties to the UN TIR Convention, including Syria, Jordan, Türkiye, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan.
Since the start of the crisis in the Middle East, and the subsequent de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, countries in the Gulf have activated alternative inland transport routes, including though increased use of the UN TIR Convention.  The Convention provides the world’s only global customs transit system for the international transport of goods. The Convention, administered by UNECE, covers multimodal transit operations, allowing to combine, as need be, maritime, rail and road transport. (....)