Connecting Landlocked Developing Countries to Markets

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Moving Goods on Corridors: Transit Regimes

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Conclusions In summary, transit regimes govern and make possible the movement of goods from their origin to their destination. At the heart of the regime is a public-private partnership, a relationship between logistics operators and the authorities of the country of transit. The principles that rule transit regimes are universal, and procedures involve a transit document and a guarantee scheme that prevent multiple taxation of the goods in transit, also precluding revenue losses associated with leakage of the goods into the transit country. Several legal instruments aimed at facilitating transit have been developed in the past decades. Despite these efforts, achieving an effective and working transit regime has been elusive in all regions outside Europe. The next chapter will revisit these implementation challenges and possible solutions.

Notes 1. For illustrative purposes we focus on trucks; however, the same applies for other modes of transport, such as wagons, barges, and so forth. In practice, the procedures may be simplified for trains. 2. HS is an international goods classification system for describing cargo in international trade under a single commodity coding scheme.

References Arvis, Jean-François. 2005. “Transit and the Special Case of Landlocked Countries.” In Customs Modernization Handbook, 243–64, ed. Luc De Wulf and José B. Sokol. Washington, DC: World Bank. Arvis, Jean-François. 2011. “Transit Regimes.” In Border Management Handbook, 279–96, ed. Gerard McLinden. Washington, DC: World Bank. De Wulf, Luc, and José B. Sokol (eds.). 2005. Customs Modernization Handbook. Washington, DC: World Bank. Grosdidier de Matons, Jean. 2004. “A Review of International Legal Instruments.” Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Policy Program Working Paper 73, World Bank, Washington, DC. European Commission. 2001. “New Customs Transit Systems for Europe.” Directorate-General for Taxation and the Customs Union, European Commission. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.


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