Distinguished delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I wish to welcome you all
to the one-hundred-and-third session of
the Working Party on Customs Questions affecting
Transport (WP.30).
The Provisional Agenda
of your meeting shows the large number of
Conventions that you are dealing with, including
the Customs Convention on the Temporary
Importation of Private and Commercial Road
Vehicles, the International Convention on
the Harmonization of Frontier Controls of
Goods, the Draft Convention on International
Customs Transit Procedures for the Carriage
of Goods and, last but not least, the TIR
Convention. For obvious reasons, I will
focus on the TIR Convention.
The TIR Convention has
for more than forty years greatly facilitated
the development of international transport
and trade in Europe, thereby providing a
major contribution to the economic growth
and prosperity of European countries, as
well as to European integration.
This has been possible
because the TIR Convention provides for
an efficient and low-cost international
transit transport of goods. Through carefully
drafted regulations, the TIR Convention
has set up, among other measures, extremely
simplified, though efficient, border procedures
and a low-cost guarantee system. This has
also been possible because it has relied
on a close cooperation between the Customs
Authorities of the Contracting Parties and
road transport operators, which is a unique
example, and certainly a pioneering one,
of what we call today Public-Private-Partnership.
Today, while remaining
useful for all Contracting Parties, the
TIR Convention is particularly important,
and I would dare to say, absolutely indispensable,
for Central, Eastern and South-Eastern European
countries with economies in transition as
well as to Caucasus countries and the landlocked
countries in Central Asia.
However, as recent events
have shown, the TIR Convention is under
a major threat, namely the misuse of its
facilities by organized crime. Indeed, well-organized
international mafias are taking illegal
advantage of the easy and low-cost border
crossing possibilities offered by the Convention
and are committing a disproportionately
high number of Customs irregularities, precisely
in those countries which need the TIR system
the most, and which, at the same time, are
the most vulnerable to such misuse, due
to the difficulties associated with the
transition process under way in those countries,
their technological and organizational backlog
and the existence of black markets where
goods can be easily traded.
As reported by the IRU
and reflected in the report of your October
2002 meeting, the IRU had received over
3500 claims for payment in 2002 up to the
date of the meeting, while the total number
of claims was below 600 in 1994 when the
previous insurance pool decided to withdraw
its coverage. The IRU also reported that
80% of all pending claims for payment originated
from two Contracting Parties. This is indeed
a dramatic increase in the number of irregularities
and a disproportionate number, particularly
in one of these countries, the Russian Federation.
This state of affairs explains the recent
events, together with the new approach adopted
by the Russian authorities in 2002, requesting
payment for all individual claims instead
of the previous practice of reaching negotiated
lump sum settlements.
Against this background,
claiming or lending support to the "automatic
and incontestable" payment of claims was,
at best, most unreasonable. Had this view
prevailed, we would have no more TIR system
in the Russian Federation and perhaps also
everywhere else. Indeed, no guarantee system
and no insurance company would have been
ready to assume the dramatic risk increase
derived from the new approach adopted by
the Russian Federation on the basis of that
principle.
In this respect, while
I have to recognize a part of responsibility
of the secretariat, I hope you can admit
that the positions held by certain members
of the TIRExB and delegates to this Working
Party may have lent support to this new
approach. I would also like to invite you
to reflect what might have happened if the
management of the guarantee chain had complied
with the request of the TIRExB to re-introduce
sensitive goods in the TIR system, with
complete disregard to the risk for the guarantee
chain.
These proposals have over
the years undermined the relationships among
the various players of the TIR system and
led to mistrust and lack of confidence among
them. This explains that this Working Party,
at its sessions in June and October 2002,
did not take sufficiently into account the
above figures and the serious concerns reported
by the IRU at those sessions.
We should be pleased that,
thanks to the responsiveness of both the
Russian Customs authorities and the IRU,
we were able to avoid a crisis. I would
therefore like to express once again my
appreciation to both the Russian Customs
authorities and the IRU for their efforts
to find a solution.
However, we must now look
into the future and do our utmost to avoid
the repetition of a situation similar to
the one that has occurred last December.
For this to happen, we must understand that
the international guarantee system is not
prepared and was not established to cover
the unprecedented large scale of the irregularities
committed by organized crime in some countries.
If we do nothing or if
we do not act in a more responsible way,
we will have to face the prospect that the
TIR system may cease to exist in the near
future. To prevent this prospect from taking
place, I believe that this Working Party
should recommend to the Administrative Committee
to focus its work and that of the TIRExB
on how best to prevent Customs irregularities
in the countries that are or could become
the targets of organized crime. In addition,
I believe that this Working Party should
promote a climate of trust and confidence
among the various players, in particular
between the Contracting Parties and the
private sector. For this to happen, it is
important that the IRU make an effort towards
communication and information. It is also
important that the bodies concerned create
a working environment and a regulatory framework
that allows the private sector to perform
its commercial functions with the necessary
room for manoeuvre and without unnecessary
interference. Furthermore, it is important
to avoid initiatives that represent a dramatic
and unforeseen increase in risk for the
guarantee system.
More specifically, I welcome
and fully support the three-stage approach
proposed by the Group of the Friends of
the Chairman and strongly encourage this
Working Party to recommend to the Administrative
Committee the adoption and immediate implementation
of such an approach.
I also welcome and fully
support the presentation by the Government
of Latvia for consideration at this session
of a proposal for the introduction of a
control system in the Convention in order
to allow the IRU and guaranteeing associations
to better manage the risk for the guarantee
system. I invite you to finalize the relevant
amendment proposal as soon as possible.
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is vital for the
economies of the Contracting Parties and
the well-being of their citizens that the
TIR Convention can continue to facilitate
the development of international transport
and trade. I call upon you, Governmental
delegates, representatives of the EC and
the IRU, to do your utmost in order to achieve
this strategic objective of the Contracting
Parties to the TIR Convention.
I wish this Working Party
the greatest success in its work and thank
you for your attention.
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